PRESIDENT OF Cable & Wireless Jamaica, Jacqueline Holding, has challenged the 35 countries in the region which comprise the Caribbean Association of Telecommunications Organisations (CANTO) to push for increased access to information and communication technology for the region's youth.
Ms. Holding told the representatives from the 35 Caribbean, Central and South American countries that communications technology could lead to long-term economic and social improvement. She was addressing Sunday's official opening of CANTO'S 21st annual general meeting which is being held at the Hilton Kingston Hotel in New Kingston.
"We can no longer think in terms of step changes," she said, "There has to be a paradigm shift, and it must begin with how we facilitate access."
According to her, the potential in the Caribbean is still hugely under-exploited and the young people of the region must be equipped to take full advantage of the global opportunities that these technologies present.
Ms Holding said Cable & Wireless had already begun to provide opportunities for young people across the Caribbean through free Internet access for schools, donations of computers and through employee volunteers, who taught and trained
youngsters.
"Let us organise to better lobby as a group to get more computers and other access devices at reasonable prices for our schools at all levels," she said. "Let us become more creative in providing affordable packages which marry our service with computers.
"Governments must be lobbied to waive taxes on computers and other access devices and to give tax write-offs for the companies which donate computers to this initiative, she said. "I believe we owe it to history and ourselves to do all we can to ensure that the next and succeeding generations of Caribbean people have easy and ready access to the information super-highway."
The working sessions of the CANTO annual meeting will take place today and tomorrow, during which the organisation will seek to develop policy positions on matters affecting the industry throughout the region.
