ST.GEORGE’S, GRENADA, MARCH 16, 2009_ Prime Minister Hon. Tillman Thomas has called on his CARICOM Colleagues to focus on a regional approach to exploiting the benefits of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for the development of the Caribbean. The Prime Minister made the call during the recent CARICOM Heads of Government meeting in Belize. “There is a growing body of evidence linking investment in ICT to economic growth and development. We are therefore convinced that the CARICOM Region must push harder to exploit the capacity of ICT to facilitate all our activities particularly those related to functional cooperation and the realisation of the CSME,” the Prime Minister said. He added that ICT can also help in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and other developmental objectives through three basic processes: enhancing livelihood, improving efficiency in service delivery, and allowing greater participation in the planning process. He noted that the “uneven availability of access” to information and communication technology among the world’s population has a significant impact on public policy and the well-being of nations and individuals. “ICT is critical to CARICOM’s future both as a sector in its own right and as a driver of productivity and improved service quality,” the Grenadian leader told his colleagues during the two day meeting. He said the people of the region must have access to robust, consistent and affordable telecommunications in order to fully benefit from ICT and its related services. The Prime Minister called on telecommunications service providers in the region to make universal access a reality, arguing that the high cost of these services in most CARICOM countries is making access to ICT difficult. “The strategic leveraging of ICT to facilitate broader public benefits, including improved health care, literacy, civic responsiveness and equitable access to economic opportunity is necessary,” he said, while acknowledging that ICT is not a solution in itself for the region’s economic or social problems. He listed the creation of a two-layer society, in which only a part of the population has access to and enjoys the benefits of the new technology, as one of the main risks. “We must confront it by convincing our citizens that the new technologies hold out the prospect of a major step forward towards a CARICOM society, less subject to traditional constraints as rigidity, inertia and compartmentalisation. By pooling resources that have traditionally been separate and distant, the information infrastructure unleashes unlimited potential for acquiring knowledge, innovation and creativity,” Prime Minister Thomas said. The Grenadian Leader told his CARICOM colleagues that the need for the provision of ICT infrastructure, the marshalling of investment resources and oversight and regulation that provides a stable and supportive environment for investment were “imperative ingredients” for the potential benefits ICT to bring to the development of “our communities”. From: Office of the Prime Minister INSIDE GRENADA NEWS