Access to high-quality Information Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure is described as the cornerstone of Guyana’s revolutionary Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS).
The revised LCDS document states that such services will catalyse private sector investment, facilitate Guyana’s rapidly-growing business, double the number of people employed by 2013, and provide the necessary infrastructure to connect remote communities to Government and other essential services.
The full benefits of an improved ICT sector will be realised when efforts to bring two fibre optic cables in Guyana are completed. One will come from neighbouring Brazil, funded by the Government, and the other, the stringing of the Suriname-Guyana Submarine Cable System (SG-SCS), by the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GT&T) company.
The latter cable will have a capacity 3,000 times the current bandwidth capacity and is part of the telephone company’s plan to make Guyana’s telecommunications capacity “light speed”.
The 1,240 kilometre submarine fibre optic cable system will connect Guyana and Suriname to Trinidad and Tobago and hence to the rest of the world. Global Marine Systems Limited (GMSL), a worldwide provider of submarine cable installation and maintenance, was contracted to install the cable and related marine services.
The cable laying began on the northern coast of Trinidad and Tobago, and proceeded in a south easterly direction over a distance of 654 kilometres, to a branching unit in the Atlantic Ocean.
On January 9, the shore-end of the Suriname-Guyana submarine cable landed and President Jagdeo, accompanied by officials of the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GT&T) company, performed the symbolic pulling of the cable at the Kingston seawall.
The Head of State believes that the availability of more reliable bandwidth in Guyana has potential for creating tens of thousands of jobs and enormous development opportunities, including call centres, regional hosting opportunities, the provision of data for disaster recovery facilities, subscriber bandwidth services, telemedicine, and distance learning.
Qualfon Guyana, a reputable call centre located at Beterverwagting, East Coast Demerara, has a staff complement of 1200 youths employed as customer service representatives.
With the two new cables coming to Guyana, the company plans to expand its staff complement to 4,200 by the end of next year.
More than 2000 youths are at present employed as customer service representatives in call centres in various parts of the country.
Government’s commitment to the development of the ICT sector was reflected in the 2010 budget with an allocation of $800M. (GINA)