– La Rocque

AT the 48th Special Meeting of the CARICOM Council for Trade and Economic Development on ICT, held in Grenada on Friday, Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Ambassador Irwin La Rocque, urged stakeholders to seize the opportunities Information and Communication Technology (ICT) holds for regional integration.Before his audience, which comprised representatives of Governments, the Caribbean Telecommunications Union, the Caribbean Knowledge and Learning Network Agency, regional and international institutions, and

CARICOM Youth Ambassadors, La Rocque emphasised the importance of the meeting to the strategic direction of ICT in the Community.
He said the recommendations from the one-day meeting would be valuable in setting the parameters for the upcoming Inter-sessional CARICOM Summit in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, as ICT has received priority for the growth and development of the Region.

SIGNIFICANT FACTOR
The Secretary-General said, “We must therefore not fail to include it as an important part of our regional economy, since it is an enabler of growth through increasing our efficiency and productivity. It has to be a significant factor as we forge a path towards a CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). ICT must be viewed as the new frontier for regional integration.”
That renewed focus on ICT was critical in maximising the “much-reported” benefits of ICT, as its development and adoption had been impeded, according to La Rocque.
Against this reality, he said, the Community has been forging ahead with a Regional Digital Development Strategy and an accompanying Action Plan for its implementation.
Elements include the development of a CARICOM Single ICT Space; capacity-building; regional policy direction, leadership and governance; and innovation and efficiency. All of those features, he said, spawned a CARICOM Information and Knowledge Society.
Ambassador La Rocque said that beyond the new frontier of ICT was a single space that would redound to “real benefits for consumers and businesses” in the Community.
The objective, he noted, was to fully establish modern regional regulatory and open telecommunications infrastructures with affordable networks, using converged technologies to provide affordable and universal access.
This, he said, would positively affect such issues as roaming rates, provide for a single area code, as well as address copyright, spectrum and broadband matters.
With this in mind, he said, the human resource capacity of the sector needed to be ramped up, as it was fundamental in building a digital culture across the Community and increasing the value and volume of the Region’s trained ICT workforce that could create, develop and use ICT to improve economic value.
“Promoting such initiatives would also foster innovation and increase our competitiveness, both of which are essential in achieving our goal of sustainable economic growth and development,” the Secretary-General said.
A noteworthy success he pointed to was reposed in the Caribbean Research and Education Network (CaribNET), which was launched last February and is managed by the Caribbean Knowledge and Learning Network Agency (CKLNA).