–PM Phillips tells CANTO Caribbean

PRIME MINISTER, Brigadier (Ret’d), Mark Phillips said his government was committed to creating the required infrastructure to make it possible for everyone to access Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs).

Giving the keynote address at the Opening Ceremony of the CANTO 37th Annual Conference and Trade Exhibition 2022 at the Fountainebleau Miami Beach, the Prime Minister said his government liberalised the telecommunications industry on October 5, 2020, ending a 30-year monopoly on fixed landline and international long-distance services.

The conference was held under the theme, “Enabling the Digital Evolution”.

He explained that the value-added tax on Internet data has been eliminated for residential customers. That action had increased consumer disposable income and decreased the service’s effective cost, both of which should increase demand for the operator’s services.

The Prime Minister also stated “We have made more spectrum available to the industry, especially in the critical 700MHz band, to increase coverage and enable the deployment of LTE and later generation networks.”

He also highlighted the significance of CANTO and its mission to provide solutions and initiatives to realise this year’s theme and to facilitate shaping the ICT industry in the Caribbean Region and the Americas.

Mentioning the widespread use of ICTs for service and product delivery in the post-pandemic era, the Prime Minister said they will enable us to socialise, plan and collaborate in the workplace, as well as carry out many of the other tasks that persons were accustomed to doing in person.

He noted that the COVID-19 pandemic had firmly established the value and influence of ICTs in everyone’s lives.

In addition, he pointed out that the internet has drawbacks. As the national COVID-19 Task Force’s Chairman in Guyana, he witnessed, first-hand, the harm misinformation can do to the public good as the Task Force dealt with vaccine hesitancy and other types of skepticism about science-based public health measures.

He requested the conference’s telecommunications operators, content providers, and regulators to look into policies that support and guarantee responsible Internet usage while still maintaining the universally accepted principles of freedom of speech and freedom of expression as their basis.

Further, Prime Minister Phillips addressed the issue of the digital divide, pointing out the harsh reality that less than 50 per cent of Caribbean residents have access to the internet, and that, during the worst of the pandemic, those without internet access were essentially unable to access financial, governmental, and other essential services.

“For some people, a lack of meaningful social interaction made mental health problems worse. And the outcome was a nearly complete, if not total, loss of incomes and means of subsistence for many of those for whom participating in economically enabled by technology was not feasible,” the Prime Minister added.

Further, he said that the introduction of robotic applications, the use of drones in agriculture, apps for reporting public incidents, tax collection, e-health, e-banking, and other new technologies were all a part of digital evolution.

He also noted that service providers were moving from 4G to 5G services and that artificial intelligence (AI) engines drive many back-office operations.

Meanwhile, CANTO’s Caribbean Secretary-General, Teresa Wankin, in her opening remarks, reaffirmed CANTO’s commitment to meet the needs of the Caribbean Community with a primary focus on Digital Development, Enablement, and Improvements that will result in digital transformation.

She highlighted the incredible opportunity for knowledge sharing to strengthen ICT that the conference presented with all the appropriate people and businesses in attendance.

Following her remarks, Chairman of CANTO Caribbean, David Cox, thanked all stakeholders and attendees for their support during the previous two years of turbulence and said that it demonstrated the resilience of Caribbean people.

In addition, Cox expressed his sincere gratitude and honour at having Guyana’s prime minister deliver the keynote address at the auspicious event. Noting that Guyana was a significant member of the CANTO Caribbean family, he expressed his eagerness to learn more about Guyana, especially now that the nation was undergoing incredible change.

Cox maintains that “CANTO’s greatest value was that it was a unique market for ideas,” as he had stated in previous contexts. “The goal of CANTO is to provide a forum where ideas can debate one another, not to tell people what to think. Our mission is to inform, enlighten, challenge, listen, and ultimately to encourage the growth of our people.”

With a closing ceremony on July 20, 2022, the CANTO 37th annual Conference and Trade Exhibition continues at the Fountainbleau Miami Beach. Canto members, government ministers, and speakers from across the region from all facets of ICT are present to support the extensive networking, discussion, and idea-sharing needed to close the digital divide.