Mitchell: Region must look to technology

Speaking on the topic “Using Technology to Unleash Caribbean Potential and Create Further Development”, the Prime Minister of Grenada, Dr. Keith Mitchell, strongly urged Caribbean people to look to information and communication technologies (ICTs) to increase their development and global competitiveness.

He was addressing patrons at the Prime Minister’s lecture hosted by UWISTAT and held at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus last week Wednesday night.

Making it clear he was delivering his message from the perspective of his CARICOM role as the region’s Prime Minister with responsibility for science and technology, he shared his hope that the people of the region could wake up to the rapid changes and wide-ranging sources of success by “unleashing Caribbean potential to create further development”.

Focusing mainly on the boundless possibilities of ICTs, he says the embracing of ICTs to create its pervasive use can play a major part in increasing the prosperity and the well being of our people, by helping us to become more globally competitive.

“Indeed, the world’s economy is now described as knowledge-based. In these knowledge-based economies, the majority of workers in the society are engaged in activities that create, share and use
information as the primary means of production.”

“The discourse then posits that economic growth in the Caribbean will be brought about by accelerating the development of an information society, creating an enabling environment that supports the regional private sector to become more effective competitors on the world stage, in the traditional areas of economic activities, using ICT to support innovation and new revenue streams,” he stated during his long speech.

However, Mitchell firmly believes that ICTs have to be used in the most beneficial way for us and this he says, is via a shift to more service-based businesses.

“Our proposition is that the future of the Caribbean will be shaped not by the technology itself but the choices we make on how we use these technologies to access information, and regulate our activities to provide economic prosperity and sustainable growth by developing our economies to become globally competitive.”

‘The present global economy is one in which intellectual capital has become the most important factor of production, underlying a nation’s ability to innovate and remain competitive. This means that in order to survive and prosper, we have to stabilise our economies and return to economic growth by strategically moving ourselves from a trade-in-goods region to a trade-in-services region.” (EL)