THE Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GTT) on Tuesday announced that it will be offering cloud services to the business community.
Speaking at the opening of GTT’s Innov8 Business Forum at the Marriott Hotel, the company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Justin Nedd said, “I’d like to announce that we are offering cloud services to businesses and you’ll hear more about that- -this means that this would now take the burden of buying, updating software and doing backups and securely storing your information.”

Nedd told the gathering of business professionals and young people that as his company continues to roll out its fibre service to the business community, the use of the cloud service would “free you and allow you to focus on your core business”.
The CEO, who has been at the helm of the company for two years, stressed that the acceleration of technological change must be done in tandem with massive changes in policy and institutions.

It is as a result of this, his company works closely with the Government of Guyana through the Ministry of Public Telecommunications.
Additionally, Nedd noted that GTT looks forward to the liberalisation of the telecommunications sector, which he said will ensure there is a level playing field “in a space where everyone pays the same taxes, has the same regulatory oversight and abides by the same laws”.

“This is going to be great for our customers and nation and GTT is really, really ready and eager to have liberalisation,” said Nedd, while calling on citizens to stop being dependent on government to effect the change they wish to see.
The CEO said his company believes strongly in providing young people with access to information through the Internet ,so that they can become critical and independent thinkers. In that light, he said his company has committed to connecting primary schools across the country to the Internet at no charge.
Additionally, GTT has created an Innovate Fund which stands at $18M. That Fund, Nedd explained is geared at providing STEM education and support STEM initiatives here.
It will provide opportunities to those interested in STEM with the intent to destroy barriers that prevent the less privileged from accessing great education. To this end, teachers will also be adequately trained.
“I will be reaching out to corporate Guyana to ensure that in the Innovative Fund we raise $200M per year for STEM education and entrepreneurship,” the GTT CEO stated, while reminding that technology is a time accelerator.
It should be noted that government has made available $2M for persons between the ages of 16 and 35 once involved in any element of innovation.
Nedd told the gathering of mostly business professionals that the constant thrust to improve technology and become a knowledge-based economy would be the fastest way to create a better life for the people of Guyana.
He said “Technology transcends our lives and turns nouns to verbs,” while informing that access to ICT has grown tremendously over the years. He spoke of GTT’s performance in this regard.
“We moved from 1990-1991, from 19,000 landline services to more than 140,000 at the end of 2017. We moved from zero connections to the Internet to more than 55,000 at the end of 2017,” said Nedd, who said the company’s achievements have not been without challenges.

HUGE GROWTH
There has been more than 5000 per cent growth in Internet capacity since 2010, and according to Nedd, with multiple redundant, undersea and terrestrial routes in Suriname and French Guiana, GTT has been able to provide its customers with a resilient network that is capable of handling the country’s Internet traffic.
“My vision is to create a country that is not only connected using our network, but we want to create a national renaissance and in some cases an awakening, so that our citizens will learn to think critically and creatively as opposed to being fed disinformation by the loudest voices in the room,” he stated.
According to the CEO, it is his company’s vision to give children confidence through science, technology, engineering and math.
“We want to give them the confidence to stand as equals to any man, woman and child across the world. Our vision is to ensure our people are always confident in asking why, five times over so that we may get to the truth of any matter and gain a deeper understanding of any matter; may we absorb and analyse rather than plagiarise and propagate,” Nedd declared.
He gave the assurance that GTT will continue to invest in Guyana. The company has been in existence for about 27 years.
Similarly, Minister of Public Telecommunications Catherine Hughes said it is important that Guyanese capitalise on the opportunities which exist in the ICT sector. She said Guyana has begun to catch up with the developed and developing world and Guyana with its partners will stop at nothing to ensure it becomes a fully digitised nation in the shortest possible time.

“The constant restraint we hear is that there is so little time to get prepared,” she said, noting that while there is approximately two years before oil production starts here, the time is now to push full steam ahead.
“Everyone is counting down the time when we set into motion the required legislation, the protection for data and infrastructure and an easy investment platform,” she said, while assuring that things are being done simultaneously to get Guyana where it needs to be. In fact, she said the drafting of legislation is an ongoing process.
Hughes said Guyana’s investment portfolio has expanded tremendously over the past few years since the announcement of oil here. She said opportunities abound and any limitation to taking advantage of same lies in the individual.
“There is an amazingly broad spectrum of opportunities, upstream, downstream of the new oil and gas industry and of course in our new ICT sector,” she said.
She reminded that before Guyana got on board this new ICT train, Guyana did have a number of start-up groups of young people who were quietly creating applications and winning hackathons and code sprints around the world.
Prior to 2015, when her administration took office, the minister said there was no national platform or enough governmental support or functioning ICT infrastructure. “I am happy that we are building and providing that now,” she said.
She applauded several young and budding innovators and business owners who were known in other countries of the world, but not well enough here. The minister singled out a few including Intellect Storm which created the online directory, Vision 75 who won the hackathon, and Innovative Systems which created the agricultural exchange application that would be able to link farmers with potential markets.

BRAINS RIGHT HERE
“Sometimes in Guyana we think, that all the brains are somewhere in the diaspora, or somewhere else in the world when we have amazing people, doing amazing things right here. I hope in time that the private sector would be taking advantage of the skills they have here to ensure they take their businesses to the next level,” said Hughes.
The minister said efforts will continue to provide Internet access to the hinterland, and poor and rural communities. Additionally, the minister said government is about to commission a new telecommunications agency that is going to be responsible for policy planning and maintaining a level playing field. That agency will in fact oversee the operations of the ICT sector.

Meanwhile, Patricia Bacchus, chairman of GO-Invest said that with increased business operations here, due to a large extent by the advent of oil and gas, it has become increasingly important to invest heavily in technology and innovation, to support the emerging and other existing economic sectors.
Therefore, Bacchus opined that GTT’s Innov8 summit is impeccably timed, for it can be the impetus which stimulates discussions and action on technology and innovation to expand the ICT Sector.

“This ICT expansion is highly relevant to surfacing and emerging as well as existing economic sectors in Guyana, particularly in today’s globally interconnected trade and business environment. Through the focus of innovation tailored for local business operations, improved efficiency, reduced cost and elevated customer satisfaction can be achieved,” the Go-Invest board chair stated.
She noted that growth in the ICT sector would also contribute to the country’s GDP growth and would also provide stability through the diversification of its economic base which currently hinges very heavily on natural resource and commodity resource.
“A further benefit is the potential of the ICT sector to provide novel job opportunities, particularly for young people and to foster creativity, a competence which is becoming increasingly important,” Bacchus stated.
She like Nedd said with the vast potential for ICT growth and economic progress connected with technology and innovation “it is equally important for government to match the efforts of private enterprises such as GTT in promoting STEM initiatives and providing an enabling environment for ICT growth”.
Significant strides she said have been made in this regard by the Ministry of Public Telecommunications, which has placed emphasis on modernising the legislative framework, expanding the e-government programme, and encouraging education and entrepreneurship in innovation.

Bacchus, a lawyer by profession, highlighted the benefits that could accrue from the various tax regimes. She spoke of the provisions of the Income Tax in aid of industry Act which provides fiscal support by way of tax holidays to entities.
“Our laws already cater to growth and expansion in certain key sectors that were before neglected. ICT is recognised as one of those sectors. The conditions are therefore ideal and the time is right for us to explore and bring to fruition, growth in our ICT sector,” the GO-Invest chairman stated, while noting that her entity looks forward to facilitating expansion in the ICT sector by providing the requisite support.