(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Caribbean Community (CARICOM), in preparing for the one of its kind Connect the Americas Summit, set for Panama in July, is sending a strong and clear message to private sector and investment organizations that they are ready with viable, creative, cross-cutting regional and national development projects for funding.
The Third Preparatory Meeting of the Caribbean on the Summit held in Barbados on Tuesday, which was supported with funding from the European Union under the 9th EDF, ended with a comprehensive report to be submitted to CARICOM Heads of Government on the Region’s strategy for funding, maximizing participation and exploiting opportunities at the Summit.
The Connect Americas Summit aims to mobilize the human, financial and technical resources required to close Information and Communication Technology gaps in the region. The Summit is expected to attract leaders from the public and private sectors as well as international and regional financing and development agencies to network face-to-face and forge new partnerships.
For CARICOM’s part, they will be submitting more than 45 regional and national projects valued close to half-a-billion dollars, with which they hope to attract public and private sector investments as well as funding from International Development Partners. These projects will be packaged, grouped and presented under the five ITU themes: Emergency Communications; Digital Broadcasting; Broadband Access and Uptake in Urban and Rural Areas; Human Capacity Building and ICTs with emphasis on the marginalized.
Some of the major projects are related to Regional Spectrum Management; Broadband Roll-out; Development of Digital Cities and A Single virtual university space. A description of all projects can be found at http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/connect/americas/projects.asp.
At the Meeting, Senior Officials from Member States and regional institutions agreed on developing a strategy to engage and attract investment interests in these projects, leading up to the Summit which will be held on 17-19 July in Panama. The Meeting also emphasized the need for ownership of the Summit as well as to establish one regional voice at the Summit – a voice which speaks to the uniqueness of the Caribbean Region in relation to its regional strategy for socio–economic and sustainable development through ICT.
The Connect the Americas Summit will feature high-level interactive panels focused on the challenges posed for developing economies in harnessing the full potential of ICTs. Bold decisions and commitments are expected to be announced on multi-stakeholder partnerships to meet these challenges.
The Senior Officials have agreed to pull out all stops in ensuring high level ministerial participation in the Summit and in ensuring that projects reflecting the Region’s priorities attract full support and sponsorship from regional and international development partners. The Meeting also expressed hope that the Lead Head for ICTs in the CARIOCM Quasi-Cabinet, Grenada’s Prime Minister Honourable Tillman Thomas will continue to champion the cause and the path to Panama.
