I extend a very special welcome to those who are visiting Antigua and Barbuda for the first time. Antigua has been blessed with 365 of the most spectacular beaches anywhere in the world. The Jolly Beach Resort is located right on one of the most stunning beaches. So please find some time after the training sessions to allow that dazzling Caribbean Sea to caress your body.

Those of you who have been with us before, welcome again.

I want to indicate from the very outset how pleased the Government of Antigua and Barbuda is that this training workshop is taking place here. The Centre for International Services held a conference here in the early part of 2005. We are pleased once again to be collaborating with the UWI's Centre for International Services and with the Commonwealth Secretariat in hosting this important and timely training workshop: "ICT and the Networked Economy: Training for the Networked Economy".

The outline of your programme indicates that your deliberations will cover a number of major themes and case studies including:

• ICT in the new economy - case studies from the Caribbean approaches to the knowledge-based economy;
• Cross border trade and ICT's: outsourcing of business opportunities;
• Measurement of the ICT sector in the Caribbean, and
• E-government and the economy.

Your deliberations, I am sure, will encourage the acquisition of new skills, a heightened awareness of ICT as an enabler of national and regional development, and the strengthening of approaches to using ICT to enable economic ventures.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Governments and the Private Sector in the Caribbean Region have begun recognizing the true value of ICT's as a central theme in national development policies.

ICT's are changing our society in ways that are reminiscent of the fundamental changes brought by motorcars. As motorcars did, ICT's are helping us to be more productive and efficient than ever before.

During an earlier stage of the social development of several of the CARICOM countries, a transition was made from an agricultural economy to an industrial one, or in the case of Antigua and Barbuda, to a tourism and services sector economy. But if we have to wait for all countries to pass through the same process of development, Caribbean countries, as developing countries, would never close the gap. However, ICT's will help countries to leapfrog the development process, by moving directly to a globally-connected, information-driven, knowledge-based society.

With flat-rate pricing models of communication services hopefully an impending reality in the Caribbean (the Government of Antigua and Barbuda is certainly advocating this position), we can eliminate the tyranny of distance and remoteness. In fact, for those of us who use the Internet or VOIP, distance no longer exists.

ICT's provide us with the opportunity to build a more just and equitable information society, in which our countries, even with disadvantages such as the lack of industrialization, for the first time have a real chance to catch up with the developed world.

Ladies and gentlemen, the digital divide poses several challenges for our countries, because Government's are being forced to choose between many competing objectives in development planning and in demands for development funds whilst having limited resources. The scale of the problem in bridging the digital divide will require adequate and sustainable investments in ICT infrastructure and services, and capacity building, and transfer of technology over many years to come.

Financing for ICT development needs to be placed in the context of the growing importance of the role of ICT's, not only as a medium of communication, but also as a development enabler, and as a tool for the achievement of the internationally-agreed development goals and objectives, including the Millennium Development Goals.

In the past, the financing of ICT infrastructure in the Caribbean was based on public investment. Lately, a significant influx of investment has taken place where private sector participation has been encouraged, particularly where public policies aimed at bridging the digital divide have been implemented.

Advances in communication technology and high-speed data networks are continuously increasing the possibilities for our Caribbean Countries, and countries with economies in transition, to participate in the global-market for ICT-enabled services on the basis of their comparative advantage. These emerging opportunities are providing a powerful commercial basis for ICT infrastructural investment. For example, Antigua and Barbuda will shortly become the home base for a multi-million dollar data centre offering services to the banking community both in the Caribbean and in North America.

Therefore, it is quintessential that our Governments continue to take action, in the framework of national development policies, in order to support an enabling and competitive environment for the necessary investment in ICT infrastructure and for the development of new services.

I put it to you that attracting investment in ICT's has depended crucially upon an enabling environment, including good governance at all levels, and a supportive, transparent and pro-competitive policy and regulatory framework, reflecting national realities.

Ladies and Gentlemen, this training workshop ushers in another important and exciting chapter in the economic and social development in Antigua and Barbuda. This two-week exercise can be viewed as yet another quantum leap into the digital world of the 21st Century.

This forum is yet another alliance between the Government of Antigua and Barbuda and the academic and private sector community that will have the capacity to transform lives. Our Information Communications Technology Agenda is for the rapid transformation of Antigua and Barbuda into a digitally driven society. This Agenda is opening up potential benefits to our population out of all proportion to our country's size. For example, we are recognized worldwide as having an excellent financial services sector and as a well-regulated Internet gaming (i-gaming) jurisdiction.

We already rank high in Information Communication Technology in the region. In our digital quest, however, we are looking beyond leadership in the sub-region, to leading edge in the global context. This is an ambitious aspiration. It is, however, an achievable goal.

The Government of Antigua and Barbuda sees leadership in Information Communications Technology as Antigua and Barbuda's best option for country competitiveness in the impending Caribbean Single Market and Economy, and in the global economy. It is for this reason that the Government of Antigua and Barbuda will host two major regional telecommunications events later this month. On March 27, the first component of a harmonized regional approach to spectrum management begins in Antigua with a three day Spectrum Management Training Programme in collaboration with the Caribbean Telecommunications Union. Antigua and Barbuda will also later this month host the 14th Executive Council Meeting of the CTU.

As a nation targeting ICT leadership, we have begun confronting the fact that home networks are now running at 100 megabits per second. We have already set our ICT perspectives beyond the leading edge of such developments. That's the kind of capability that would give Antigua and Barbuda a significant edge in country competitiveness.

The Government of Antigua and Barbuda's Digital Agenda has several important components

1) A stable and regulatory framework - the Government will this year pass a new Telecommunications Act;

2) Additional fibre optic capacity - the Government is currently in discussions with a group for the landing of a submarine fibre optic cable. With the landing of this cable, broadband access will drop significantly;

3) The removal of taxes on computers, peripherals and computer supplies;

4) The removal of taxes on internet access;

5) A full range of incentives for investment in information technology and related training;

6) Accelerating the move to e-business - the Electronic Transactions Act has already had its first reading in this session of the Parliament. The Data Protection Act and the Computer Misuse Act are to follow shortly. E-business will reduce costs, boost productivity and assist in managing change more effectively for small businesses and give them greater opportunities for growth. By using ICT and engaging in e-business, by buying and selling over the Internet, small business enterprises can have the world as their market.

7) Marked reductions in international direct dialed-rates. In September, 2005 the reductions on Cable and Wireless' rates on calls outside of the region went as high as 59%;

8) For direct Connect Companies such as our Internet Gaming Operators, there have been reductions in connect rates from as low as 27% to as high as 50%;

9) The introduction of an annual ICT FEST, part of the Government's ambitious programme to reduce the digital divide by beginning to provide citizens with information about and access to ICTs;

10) The expansion of the Government's Information Technology (IT) Centre and wide area network (WAN) and the establishment of a back-up or redundancy platform that will serve almost as a second Information Technology (IT) Centre;

11) A plan for the provision of an e-mail address to every Secondary School student;

12) The allocation of hundreds of thousands of dollars for building human resource capacity.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have also been giving appropriate priority to ICT's in traditional areas such as broadcast radio and television.

Indeed, Antigua and Barbuda, has already commenced an ambitious programme to explore the potential that ICT's possess for dramatically transforming Antigua and Barbuda and for significantly improving the lives of all in our nation.

Best wishes for a highly productive training workshop.

Thank you and God bless.

March 06, 2006 St. John's, Antigua