Salutations
First, I want to express the sympathy, solidarity and support of the Secretary-General and staff of the CARICOM Secretariat for our sister nations of the Region who have suffered such loss of life and damage at the hands of recent hurricanes, especially Hurricane Ivan.
I want to thank the CTU for once again inviting me to address your Executive Council meeting. I consider this an honour, since the CTU is the major telecommunications policy organ in the region and is vital to the ongoing challenge we face as individuals and as a region in making the best possible use of the new technologies that are increasingly affecting every aspect of our lives.
You have done an excellent job in putting in place the technology, and facilitating the regulatory framework and institutional superstructure for the great leap forward that is possible using telecommunications as a launching pad for connectivity and development. However, the constant explosion of telecommunications technologies; the limited resource base in materials, man- and woman-power, and money in the region; the competing demands for these resources; and recent events where the forces of nature have imposed new priorities on our development, have created additional challenges that we must contend with and, hopefully, conquer together. Even great leaps forward begin with single, small, painstaking steps.
I regard the CTU as one of our primary regional resources and look forward to its playing a more extended and expanded role in regional development.
This is why I invite you to look today at CTU’s mandate in relation to the CARICOM Connectivity Agenda about which I spoke last year at your meeting in St. Kitts and Nevis, and to do this within the context of the challenges with which we in the Region continuously contend. I would like us to do a little bit of stocktaking and to see how we can, together, facilitate and expedite the promises and potential inherent in the technologies now in place in the Region, or which are emerging and exploding daily across the ethernet and cyberspace, impacting on the real world in very tangible ways, including cost.
Having decided where we want to go on the Information Super Highway, we have to know where we are now and how to reach our destination efficiently and effectively, without running out of gas, electricity or super-conductors. In fact, the CTU has to be our super-conductor in the process of technology transfer in telecommunications.
In evaluating where we are today, particularly in light of the catastrophic events in Grenada, Jamaica, the Caymans Islands, The Bahamas, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Tobago, the destruction and devastation – in fact, the ruin that has befallen people and countries – I am reminded of the opening sentence of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. I will quote an excerpt from it, one that I am sure will resonate with all of us here today, particularly when we juxtapose the bad and good news, the forces of nature and the forces of technology.
Dickens wrote in Victorian times these prophetic, powerful and extremely relevant words: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us…”
These words, to my mind, sum up where we are today in many aspects of our lives. I think this should be our starting place in the process of reviewing where we are, where we’re going and what are the challenges that we face in getting there.
Let us start with the destination. You will recall the CARICOM Connectivity Agenda that I described last year, which was adopted by the Heads of Government as our road-map for making effective and efficient use of telecommunications or, as it is also called, Information and Communications Technology (ICT), as a critical tool for the Region’s development and the realisation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy, with a view to transforming the lives of the people of the Region. Our vision, as a Secretariat that facilitates regional development, and as a people, is to create an information society, while simultaneously reducing, and eventually removing, inequality and inequity globally by closing the digital divide, and internally by equal access and enhanced participation by all in the development process. Our destination, therefore, is social and economic transformation and a better quality of life for the people of the Region.
The CTU is a vital link in achieving this vision for the Caribbean. The purpose of, and rationale for connectivity is to enable and empower our Member States to become information and knowledge-based societies and to reap the rewards and benefits that are fast becoming available; to share in the wealth of opportunities that are daily opening up for those that are part of the global network; and avoid the pitfalls and perils that also lurk and lie in wait on the Super Highway. These are real-time and real world events, extremely tangible and terrible realities. They are not virtual reality at all.
We see four processes involved. These are the formulation of policies; legal and regulatory reform; E-assessments; and the de-monopolisation of telecommunications. They are all taking place already and are providing the key materials in the construction of our launch pad to e-excellence.
However, excellence is a moving target and we have to look beyond these four processes now that they have begun, and to identify other processes that we did not include or which are necessary, even crucial, in light of today’s realities.
What about the CTU? What are your objectives and functions? How do you see your role? When your organisation was established by the Member States of the Caribbean Community, one of the primary functions was “to facilitate the coordination of the planning, programming and development of intra-regional and international communications networks to meet the immediate and future telecommunications needs of the region”. You were also expected “to assist the development of the national components of regional and international telecommunications networks, and to promote the general awareness of the telecommunications needs of the Caribbean region and its potential for promoting the socio-economic development of the Region”.
We have to ask ourselves to what extent and with what success is CTU fulfilling its mandate and functions. I ask this in light of our own priorities for, and concerns about telecommunications. We see the following outcomes or outputs as vital and have been instrumental in trying to facilitate their achievement.
We want to see a competitive industry, yet one that does not sacrifice training or the sanctity of intellectual property. More than anything else, we strongly believe in equitable, universal and affordable access to information as a vital first-step towards ensuring effective civil society participation in all aspects of development, both nationally and regionally. This is a prerequisite for many of the objectives that we have in mind, from developing a regulatory framework for telecommunications, to working out how best to create a single market and economy.
Unfortunately the promises of the sector have not matched the performance. I can cite many examples but the one that worries me most occurred recently. On September 13, almost a week after Hurricane Ivan had almost destroyed Grenada, a CDERA Situation Report (No. 12) said, “Information dissemination remains a challenge but efforts are underway to address it. A UNDAC team arrived tonight and successfully established a wireless Internet connection. Tests were successful. This now significantly boosts the speed of data transfer between the EOC and CDERA.” I am sure that there are good and sufficient reasons for this, but the question can still be asked, and has been asked: where was the CTU? Moreover, and this is a question for all of us, given our history of vulnerability and the increase in natural disasters, why didn’t we have the telecommunications facilities in place before the disaster? Additionally, now that climate change and extreme events associated with it are increasing, what are we doing or will do to ensure that we improve our telecommunications capacity for disaster management?
Clearly, this has to be a priority of the CTU. Why should we have waited a week for UNDAC to arrive to set up a wireless Internet connection?
Since its inception in 1989, the CTU has been tasked with the following important functions: speaking to the international community; identifying and obtaining technical assistance from the EEC, ITU, World Bank and treating with other donor countries and agencies; relating to operator-groups like CANTO, etc.; and – the final one – establishing links with telecommunications-related agencies like CBU and CDERA. With the rapidly changing environments of telecommunications and radio communications, clearly we need to review these functions in light of today’s realities. We have to emerge, with the help and support of the CTU, into the best of times and to use telecommunications to be the best we can be as individuals and as one Caribbean people. We must be prepared for the worst while aiming to achieve the best.
In fact, to go one step further, even more important than your assistance in understanding the new developments in telecommunications, is your role in ensuring that we make sense of them, especially as many of the old technologies are converging into multi-dimensional, multi-media, and multi-faceted machines and manifestations. We have to understand as individuals and as a people what is happening, what is available and how to make the best use of these new technologies within the limits of the very finite and narrow resource base that characterises the Region.
We will always have more demands than we have resources, and we will always need to make the wisest possible choices about how we spend or use the very limited resources that we have, both human and material, and where to apply them so they will do the most good or provide the most benefits. We have to be concerned with our absorptive capacity. This is one of the challenges of development in the region and a primary role for the CTU. If technology is the question what is the answer?
You are the people with the questions and the answers and you have to be our ears, eyes, brains and conscience when it comes to technology assessment, adoption, adaptation and application.
In previous eras, the development process evolved over many years. Regardless of what was invented – gunpowder, printing, the steam engine – it would eventually be absorbed, adopted or adapted, then assimilated and eventually applied. In some cases the process took centuries. Today, when we buy a piece of hardware or software, a cell phone or computer programme, we go through all the stages simultaneously. At the same time, with the explosion of technologies, we have hundreds or thousands of these challenges and decisions crowding us. We need help to make sense of this changing universe, to make the right choices and decisions, to select among the many options and alternatives available, those that would add value to our development efforts both as sovereign states and as a region.
Moreover, we need to have a frame-of-reference against which we can measure each new technology and to evaluate its promise, potential and its performance. In fact, performance is the critical issue. Many technologies have arrived here, some by choice, some by chance, some dumped, some donated, and all greeted with open arms. We pay the price, and have paid the price, in delayed development, setbacks and opportunity costs. My second challenge to you then is to play a more pro-active role in the process. You must do what is best for the region and its peoples. It is a responsibility that we all share. It is a burden that you must help us carry. It is a challenge that I throw out to you knowing that you have the capacity to carry it out, and may also have the will and wherewithal. As Shakespeare said, “The readiness is all.”
In a paper on the Challenges and Opportunities in Telecommunications, Professor Silvana Rubino-Hallman of Syracuse University reviewed the situation in Latin America and the Caribbean. He prefaced his study with this conceptual underpinning. He said: “The impact of the new technologies in a country’s opportunities in the Information Age resides on two pillars: the development of an information infrastructure, understood as the traditional communication networks, and telecommunications, the computer hardware and software, and the policy and regulation required for its maintenance; as well as the development of content that renders this information infrastructure an effective vehicle for change.”
The point he makes is that while we have the technology in place we have not done enough about, or should consider as a priority for our future development, the need for content. He continues: “Equally important to the development of the information infrastructure, is the creation of content. It is not just about creating the opportunity for access but, most importantly, realising that access through knowledge dissemination and information. Metaphorically, the information infrastructure is the pillars on which to build the bridge to overcome the digital divide, but the bridge itself is made of content applications. These content applications, especially in key sectors such as education and health, will in turn generate more demand for connectivity. The challenge is not only connecting but about networking, the creation of relationships, the exchange of information and the transference of knowledge.”
Whether it is e-government or e-commerce, we still have to realise the content. And we in the region should not be content until we do. This is my second challenge to the organisation.
My third challenge is based on a situation assessment. Let us look at the existing state of affairs, bearing in mind that the degree of difference changes in each of the countries of the region but not the fundamental problem.
According to the research, tele-density remains a problem in most countries. While some of the countries are in the top 100 as far as penetration is concerned, there are still some cases where the average is about 20 lines per 100 inhabitants or less. Most Internet access is through dial-up connections, bandwidth capabilities remain low, and access is very costly and very limited. All connections, whether dial-up or broadband, are expensive. Competition continues to be a challenge for most of the region, especially in basic services. Some companies come in with reduced costs of phones and services and then when they gain a foothold or market share, prices go up or new charges are added. Like excellence, regulatory policies are also a moving target but are not moving much.
Clearly, the CTU has to be ahead of the game and to advise us. The connectivity gaps between urban and rural communities, and between low-income and high-income groups, are increasing. Universal access remains an elusive dream. How can we make the great leap forward when the anchor, the base, the launching pad, the foundation is still not stable or secure? How can we make our economies sustainable and successful if we are building on what seems to be still shifting sands? My challenge is to get the infrastructure right and to place as much emphasis on content as is placed on technology. Again I ask: if technology is the answer, what is the question?
Colleagues, I have tried to identify the commonality of interests that we represent here today and your critical role in our progress along the Information Super Highway.
There is no question that the CTU is, and will be even more, an important agent of progress and process, helping us to move forward in a way that involves Caribbean society as a whole, not only those who can afford to purchase and use the new technologies that descend upon us with increasing, and even alarming, frequency.
I have issued some challenges that I believe are important if we are to achieve the goals that we all have and that we share for the region: one Caribbean, a single market and economy, better crisis communications, more pro-active and prepared populations – this is what we all want. The CTU is a vital link in achieving this vision of the Caribbean.
In closing, let me summarise what we would like to see from the CTU. First, we must have in place a plan and the infrastructure to deal with extreme events. They will come and we must be ready. Telecommunications is the glue that more and more binds us together. Let us make it super-glue so that not even the force of a hurricane could separate, isolate, marginalise or divide us.
The CTU must also ensure that some of the constraints and barriers to development that are within its managerial sphere are removed or reduced. This would facilitate the e-commerce and e-government activities that are vital to the region’s future. You have to focus on content while simultaneously ensuring that the infrastructure and technologies are in place.
The CTU must also be our both our window and conscience, our interpreter in the confusing welter and wonderland of new toys, technologies and terrors. We must institutionalise that role and function.
If we do all this, we can make the best use and take maximum advantage of the opportunities that exist in this brave new world of telecommunications and ICTs. Let me quote from the American broadcaster, Edward R. Murrow. What he said about television as a medium is just as applicable today to telecommunications. He said: “This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box.”
I thank you.
