Minister Paulwell Lauds Caribbean Institute of Technology

Minister of Commerce, Science and Technology, Phillip Paulwell, has lauded the Caribbean Institute of Technology (CIT) for its achievements and contribution to the development of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) over the past seven years.
“I feel like a proud parent as we acknowledge the tremendous contributions of this institution, though only seven years old, is well known both here and abroad. It gives me pride this morning to acknowledge and congratulate CIT on its fine achievements over these years,” Minister Paulwell said.
He was addressing participants at the official opening ceremony of CIT’s information and communications technology Awareness Week Expo at the Montego Bay Civic Centre yesterday (February 8).
Mr. Paulwell announced that in acknowledgement of the achievements of CIT, this month another massive ICT project would be launched for the further development of the country’s human resource capital.
“We believe that it is through the development of our human resources, our people, that Jamaica is going to be able to make the quantum leap necessary. This is no longer going to be a country that we promote as a cheap destination in terms of labour. This is a country where we are going to be saying to the world you are going to find the finest set of people, the most sophisticated human resources, well trained and who would be able to perform at world class level for investors both local and abroad,” he told the expo.
Turning to other expansions in the ICT Industry, the Minister announced that next week Prime Minister P.J. Patterson would launch the e-learning Project, which would see a great change in the experiences of students in secondary schools across the island.
“Over 20,000 computers will be deployed to schools in this project, as we seek to refashion the way we teach. We are going to use the technology to excite our students once more, so that we can see improvements in their performances,” Minister Paulwell said.
Meanwhile, President of the New York based LAVELL Group, Jim Smith, Jamaicans should be proud because the country had done extremely well in ICT having been ranked 41st in the world, making the island the only Caribbean country qualifying for such a world ranking.
“In the Caribbean region you will see more and more companies implementing strategies or business models based after technology and I am happy to say that organizations such as CIT will be the educational centre for ensuring that these businesses will have quality people to support their infrastructure,” Mr. Smith noted.
Approximately 15 educational institutions and community groups from across western Jamaica participated in the expo, which saw several companies showcasing the use of Information Technology (IT) in their operations, as well as presentations made by IT professionals. In addition, a debate and quiz competition among high schools in the area, were also held.