Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to be addressing you on the occasion of the very first Caribbean Regional Conference of the International Telecommunications Society. Some of the best minds in our region will contend with the challenges and the unparalleled opportunities for development, which fast pace innovations in the ICTs have offered up.
On behalf of the government, I extend a warm welcome to all participants of the Conference and a very special one to the visitors to our shores and the island’s beautiful second city Montego Bay.
Mona School of Business (MSB)To the Mona School of Business (MSB) which has organized this impressive and important forum, we express continued appreciation for its signal contribution to the regional cooperation and economic development in the Caribbean which the institution itself represents. It might be said that cooperation and the prospects for development will be the burden of your focus over the coming days.
The upcoming exchanges will take you through an examination of the environment within which our developing States seek to compete.
The global business environmentAdvances in telecommunications, information technology, and the internet have so greatly transformed the global business environment, that a robust and dependable telecoms infrastructure is a basic prerequisite for:. the success of our local businesses;. the prospect of attracting investment;. simply surviving the rough seas which surround us and better yet. emerging stronger than before.
The complexities of our global village also compel the acknowledgement that the bases of the world’s economic life and business now rest upon knowledge; and that knowledge is indeed power.
So just as the industrial revolution saw to a shift from man to machine and brought about great changes in:- agriculture, manufacturing, mining, and transportation – and just as that experience had a profound influence on the socioeconomic and cultural conditions in countries throughout the world – today’s global revolution involves a shift to the mind – content is king and the multiple yet converging platforms for its delivery, the kingdom.
Located in the satellite footprint of one of the world’s most influential economies and cultures – it is the region’s imperative to get it right!
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