Days after a plan was drafted by Caricom Heads of Government for a single Information Communication and Technology (ICT) space in the Caribbean, regional Ministers and stakeholders in the field are meeting to continue work on the issue.
Guyana’s Public Telecommunications Minister, Cathy Hughes is currently
Guyana’s Public Telecommunications Minister, Cathy Hughes with other regional Ministers and officials at the CANTO’s 33rd Annual Conference and Trade Exhibition in the Dominican Republic
participating in the CANTO’s 33rd Annual Conference and Trade Exhibition taking place at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.
The Conference is the Caribbean’s premier telecommunications event for industry professionals, academics and regional Governments and opened on Sunday.
It is being held under the theme “Re-imagining ICT as a Tool for National Growth and Development”.
Groups are required to “produce a superior standard of industry pioneering and policy guiding conversations” over the next three days, according to CANTO. The organisers are confident that the high-profile delegations would produce new perspectives and plans for action that will galvanise the growth of ICT within the Region
The Conference will also feature a number of roundtable discussions on promoting the Caribbean as a location for new ICT industries; protecting data privacy; stabilising employment rates in the sector in the face of unlicensed services competing with licensed ICT service providers, who are the largest employers in the sector, and related topics.
The delegates include Hughes; Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne; Antigua and Barbuda’s Minister of State Information, Broadcasting and Telecommunications, Science and Technology, Melford Nicholas; Barbadian Minister of State responsible for Telecommunications, Immigration, Energy and Investments, Darcy Boyce; and Belize’s Minister of the Public Service, Energy and Public Utilities, Frank Mena.
Also present are senior representatives from Huawei Technologies, Cable and Wireless, Digicel and the Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT), in addition to representatives from regulatory agencies in the Caribbean.
CANTO is the leading authority in the Caribbean and the Americas responsible for shaping the trajectory of Information Communication Technologies.
At the recent Heads of Government meeting in Grande Anse, Grenada, Heads of State remained convinced that ICT stood to play a transformative role in fostering an integrated and inclusive digitally-enabled Caribbean Community.
In that regard, they viewed the successful development of the Single ICT Space as a new dimension for Caricom with regard to addressing and inspiring the growing aspirations of citizens and defining Caricom’s Digital Agenda 2025 and beyond.
The Heads of Government, therefore, welcomed and approved the Draft Workplan for the Single ICT Space, and reiterated that the Single ICT Space is a regional priority. The implementation of the workplan would provide an enabling environment for innovation to flourish; a larger market for investors; support sustainable increase in growth and jobs; enhance efficiency and increase access to higher value public services.
Heads of Government also noted the synergies between the Single ICT Space and other major regional initiatives and sectors such as the Regional Strategic Plan, the Commission on the Economy, the HRD Strategy 2030, Security, Transport and Tourism.
Heads of Government requested the Caricom Secretariat to engage development partners with urgency to source funds for the environmental assessment to determine the state of the ICT sector.
