This is coming from Secretary General of the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU), Bernadette Lewis who spoke at the Opening Ceremony of the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU) ICT Road Show recently at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre (LESC).
She said that this message which was stated in a recent report of the World Economic Forum reveals that “the productivity of a country determines its ability to sustain a high level of income.
It is also one of the central determinants of its returns in investment, one of the key factors explaining an economy’s growth potential” and while there are certain things that this island can be proud of such as being ranked as the highest Caribbean nation – 44th out of 144 countries in this same report, Barbados cannot continue to rest on its laurels.
For one thing, there has been some concern with low productivity in all sectors and in order to combat this problem; we need to find new and innovative ways of becoming more productive.
Need for change
“You cannot continue doing what you have been doing for the last 100 years and apply it to the 21st century and see the transformation,” she stated.
One of the solutions that has been sought and proven successful in this regard is the development and utilisation of telecommunications. “Information and communication technologies when properly employed, present tremendous opportunities for enhancing productivity, improving efficiency, reducing operational costs, spawning new types of business, establishing new forms of industry and creating jobs.”
Lewis said that she recognises that the Government of Barbados realizes that having a competitive edge must be founded on access to and use of information and knowledge and has publicly stated their commitment to ICT development when they revealed their desire to make this island the ICT centre of the Caribbean.
The Road Show which officially opened on Monday and will continue throughout this week, in one way in which the CTU plans to help the Barbados Government achieve this goal, she said.
Accordingly, one of the key principals that the Road Show would teach persons is that “development does not begin with technology, it begins in the mind and the collective will of citizens who recognise that development is not something conferred on a country, but it is something that the Government and its citizens must do for themselves.”
Other factors that would be taught include that “ICT enabled development requires innovation and that it will be necessary to discard many of the anachronistic systems and processes of the last century which have become obstacles in our path when we embrace the 21st century; building an information society requires a critical mass of citizens who understand ICTs and, who are able to use them effectively to transform their activities and that education and public awareness are necessary activities for opening the eyes of citizens to the transformative power of ICT,” explained Lewis.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Patricia Thangaraj
Quelle/Source: The Barbados Advocate, 12.09.2012
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