Prime Minister Perry Christie declared the 19th Annual Caribbean Association of National Telecommunications (CANTO) Conference and Trade Show open Sunday evening at the Atlantis Resort. The conference is expected to run until June 18 under the theme “Connecting the Caribbean: touching lives for growth and development through telecommunications.”
Speaking off the cuff, Mr. Christie told the delegates in his address that the conference had come at an interesting time in the Telecommunications industry in The Bahamas.
He also expressed some concerns for the region as a whole.
“We live in a world where boundaries of trade are now blurred,” he said.
Additionally, the concept and role of the nations are under siege and it is up to the Government during the siege to “cause continued development for the benefit of our citizens to remain unchanged.”
CANTO- Prime Minister Perry Christie Sunday declared the 19th Annual Caribbean Association of National Telecommunications Conference and Trade Show open at the Atlantis Resort. Also pictured is Cornelius Prior, Chairman of CANTO. Staff Photo by Donald Knowles
He said the development tool of advanced communication “is our most efficient weapon against dissimilar development rates and uneven level of development.”
The prime minister also raised the issue of the ‘Digital Divide’, which he classified simply as “the process in which entire classes of people are left outside of the digital age.”
He said the region is firstly divided from the more developed nations of the world. Secondly, he said, “Some countries are better placed for advanced technological development in both access to primary resources, available markets and human capital. Thirdly, within our individual countries some communities are unprepared for a variety of reasons for a digital age that is not so new anymore, but will become increasingly difficult to navigate much beyond this current state of technological advancement.”
He stressed that the situations should not be allowed to proliferate further in the region. “In fact, our means, not only of competing, but of communicating with more developed nations and international institutions will more and more come to depend on our access to their advanced communications platforms.”
At this point he said survival depends on meeting the needs of various communities in the region.
The musical talents of The Bahamas National Youth Choir delighted delegates from the region. While Percy “Vola’ Francis, leader of the Shell Saxon’s Superstars and a small group blew the crowd away by concluding the opening ceremony with a Junkanoo rush out.
The dignitaries and delegates also viewed the exhibits on hand at the trade show and had the opportunity to speak with many representatives from companies offering the latest software and equipment in the Telecommunications Industry in the Caribbean and from around the world.
CANTO was founded in 1985 as a non-profit association of telephone operating companies in the Caribbean. The objective of the organization is to establish a forum whereby Caribbean Telecommunications Organizations can exchange information and expertise pertaining to the telecommunications field, generate input for orderly growth of the sector, formulate policy and consider matters of mutual interests to its members.
The group has grown from nine member countries in 1985 to 45 members in 28 countries in 2003.
By Jimenita Swain, The Nassau Guardian
