CTU's 21st General Conference of Ministers

Secretary General, Bernadette Lewis, 

Excellencies,​

Heads of regulatory agencies,

Ladies and gentlemen,

I bring warm greetings from ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao. He thanks you for the invitation to join you here at the Opening Ceremony of ICT Week -St Kitts and Nevis, and sends his regrets due to a previous commitment. However, his misfortune is my good fortune! I am very pleased to return to the beautiful island of St Kitts. 

It is the third time I have had the pleasure of joining a General Conference of Ministers event here, and enjoying the warm welcome and hospitality of the Caribbean! 

It is impressive to see the progress being made in this region, which has its own particular challenges, especially with the increasing occurrence of extreme weather.

Your implementation of the Single ICT Space and the 21st Century Government initiative will have huge benefits for the region. It makes sense for small countries with limited resources and common challenges to collaborate, coordinate and cooperate. I always say that in today’s complex and interconnected and interdependent societies and economies, collaboration is key.

This is true at the national, regional and international level. It is why I have always been a strong advocate of close collaboration between ITU and the regional organizations. 

CTU has a long history of working with and within ITU, and it is good to see CTU very active again in the region and we all recognized the wonderful work Bernadette has done to make this happen. 

My vision going forward is that the ITU and CTU work increasingly together in a partnership which brings benefits to all. The CTU brings a unique perspective to the issues that face us: the ITU is well placed to help developing regions. Working closely together we can make real progress. ITU and CTU have many joint activities in the region, and so we were very pleased to help fund CTU’s recent upgrading of its IT support. We are also collaborating with CANTO, CBU and CARICOM. 

ITU was formed 153 years ago to create international interoperability and interconnection of the telegraph service, and although we are now living in a far more complex telecommunication ecosystem, that remains the core function of the organization.ITU is therefore ideally placed to help the Caribbean countries achieve the Single ICT Space and the 21st Century Government. We are harmonizing regulatory frameworks, through the HIPCAR project for example, we are harmonizing spectrum use, such as the region’s plan for analog to digital switchover, and implementing common standards and conformance and interoperability testing. We have made computers available to schools in remote areas, provided communications equipment and assistance during the terrible hurricane disasters last year, and contributed to capacity building through national and regional workshops. 

It is important that the voice of the Caribbean is heard in ITU, and I am pleased to say we have made tremendous progress in providing for remote participation to our meetings.  This will allow the Caribbean to participate in much of the work relevant to the region, such as standards for resilient networks, interoperable mobile payments, IoT use for smart cities, mitigating and adapting to climate change, emergency communications and e-waste. These issues are important to you, and important to us, and so we need to work together.

We want to organize more events in the region with the widest participation possible. I am thinking of the coming the forum on disaster management and risk reduction in Dominica; Accessible Americas V: ICTs for ALL in Jamaica, and the workshop on the regulatory aspects of new ecosystems such as 5G, IoT and mobile money in Antigua and Barbuda.

ITU relies on regional organizations to develop common proposals for ITU world conferences. With the Caribbean’s own specific challenges, this is a key role of the CTU and we look forward to your active participation in the coming ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Dubai, as well as next year’s World Radio Conference.

Representation of the region on the ITU Council is important, and CTU can play a key role in ensuring the success of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas’ candidature to the Council. Next week in Trinidad there will be a meeting of Commonwealth countries discussing this and I would encourage your participation.So, I urge you to take an active part in these conferences to ensure that the voice of Caribbean is heard, and the outcomes benefit the region.

I am delighted that Stephen Bereaux is willing to chair one of the main committees following on from the excellent job that Bernadette did in Dubai at the WCIT in 2012. I am not sure if she has yet forgiven me for persuading her to take on that extremely difficult job!

Let me end by thanking the government of St. Kitts and Nevis and the CTU for their warm welcome and hospitality, and all our members in the region for their contribution. I look forward to welcoming you in Dubai next month and wish you a very successful 21st General Conference of Ministers.

Thank you very much for your attention.