ICT Sector Making Strides, Despite Challenges – Paulwell

Minister of Commerce, Science and Technology, Phillip Paulwell has said that the Government was making strides in the development of the country’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector, despite various challenges.
The Minister was speaking this week at a signing ceremony for a loan agreement between the Government and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for an ICT project.
Pointing to some of the achievements, Minister Paulwell said that since the commencement of the liberalisation of the telecommunications industry three year’s ago, the Government had approved some 274 telecommunications licences.
Among the licences issued to date are the Domestic Mobile Spectrum (DMS), Domestic Mobile Carrier (DMC) and Domestic Mobile Service Provider (DMSP). Under phase one, 134 licences were issued, comprising the Internet Service Provider (ISP), Data Service Provider (DSP), Free Trade Zone Carrier (FTZC), the Free Trade Service Provider (FTZSP) and the International Voice Service Provider (IVSP).
In phase two, 58 licences were issued for Domestic Carrier (DC), Domestic Voice Service Provider (DVSP) and Internet Service Provider for Subscriber Television Operators (ISP STVO).
Meanwhile, in phase three, 56 licences were issued including the International (Voice/data/transit) Carrier (IC) and the International (Voice/data/transit) Carrier (INT’L SP).
In addition, the Minister said that the country had attracted over US$500 million in investment in the sector, resulting in the expansion of the mobile phone market, which was now estimated at over 1.3 million sets, increasing from 90,000 in 1999. By contrast, he said that landlines have been held steady at approximately 470,000.
Mr. Paulwell said that the establishment of the Caribbean Institute of Technology and the CISCO Training Programme, showed the Government’s commitment to the development of the sector.
“Training at all levels is crucial to our development and it is in recognition of this fact that we established the Government of Jamaica’s Information Technology Training Programme for the Disabled in 2000,” he said.
To date, the 15-week programme has involved some five batches, the last of which was completed in March of this year. Since the launch of the programme, 220 physically challenged individuals have been trained. Forty-five of those persons sat exams in May 2003.
He said that with the advent of liberalisation of the telecommunications sector, the Government was able to secure $3.9 billion from the sale of two cellular licences.
The Minister said, “the Government of Jamaica, recognised years ago, the need to equip Jamaica for competitiveness in the increasingly global environment. To fulfil this mission the Government through the Ministry has placed a high priority on the implementation of policies and programmes to strengthen our capability in technology and information systems”.
He said as a result, a framework had been established for Jamaica’s sustainable development in ICT.