A very important discussion taking place at the regional conference on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Week 2015 in the Virgin Islands (British) has to do with the concept of a single ICT space, something Jamaica’s Minister of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining Honourable Phillip Paulwell sees as a major beat as the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU) seeks to abolish roaming in the Caribbean.
Hon Paulwell was at the time delivering his final speech as President of the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU), having served for three periods.
The meetings got underway at Maria’s By the Sea in Road Town, bringing together persons from all levels of the information and communication technology sector across the Caribbean, including a number of Minsters.
Last night, September 29, 2015, the official opening ceremony was held at the said location where Hon Paulwell, in his address, called for the establishment of a single ICT space.
Fragmented Region
“We are such a fragmented region due to geography but we are also fragmented in many other ways and that not ought not to be and here we are now having the opportunity to use the technology in a much more meaningful way for greater unification,” said Hon Paulwell.
He said the concept of an ICT space has been noted to the extent that they made the determination to create a vision and a road map to achieve the ICT space. “Recognising that it makes no sense for one group to be digitally able and the other not so, we want to ensure that there is evenness and the maximisation of this access.”
Abolising roaming in the Caribbean
There are some issue that are contentious, noted Mr Paulwell, but said they as a body have to deal with them by looking at how they are going to harmonise the regulatory systems, issues that affect ICTs from time to time, “We have to address it in a common way, we have to make sure roaming is finally abolished in the Caribbean.”
According to Mr Paulwell, it is now for all Ministers to recognise the value of ICTs as a cross cutting facility that will enable the economy to grow, lives to be better, people to be employed. “We regard it as such an important infrastructure accessibility that we need to ensure that the entire CARICOM through the heads do have a full presentation on the work that we have been doing and the mandate to go forward.”
Speaking to the achievement of the ICTs over the recent years, Minister Paulwell said the focus of the day is now on broadband. “It is no longer to enable our people to talk.. man our people can talk. In Jamaica I think per capita we are the 5th in the world in terms of the amount of time we spend talking and texting and that wasn’t the reason why we went out there to open up the landscape for a competition.”
He said the focus was to enable their people to have access to data, “Information, enable us to have access to broadband technology and that has been our pre-occupation over the last couple of years,” said Mr Paulwell.
The regional conference on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Week is being sponsored by Huawei, LIME, Digicel BVI and CCT, and is expected to be filled with insightful conversations regarding telecommunications within the region.
An open Ministerial Seminar will also take place on September 30, 2015 at Maria’s by the Sea. The Seminar is being held under the theme “Kick-starting the CARICOM Single ICT Space by Accelerating e-Government Services,”and is in line with what the CTU states,that e-Government services are critical to moving forward with the implementation of the Single ICT Space.
Participating Member states include Jamaica, Turks and Caicos Islands, Antigua and Barbuda and Grenada.
