Recognise ICTs in small, medium enterprises

Particular attention must be given to Small and Medium Enterprise (SMEs) with regards to how information and communication technologies (ICTs) may be applied to improve their efficiency,
extend their reach and make them more globally competitive.

That is according to Dr. Keith Mitchell, Prime Minister of Grenada, during his address to the University of the West Indies Students Today Ambassadors Tomorrow (UWISTAT) lecture, held recently at the Cave Hill Campus.

According to him, such efforts should include the provision of business development services that assist in the design of business models; redefinition of business processes and the assessment of the most cost effective means of implementing ICT solutions; exploring effective ways of providing inexpensive ICT; and integrating SMEs into supply chains, by adopting industrial and trade policies that seek to expand both export and local value added services.

Dr. Mitchell went on to reveal that all the studies on the use of ICT suggest that the investment in both infrastructure and skills require a degree of scale of use in order to realise a reasonable return on investment.

“The challenge with the Caribbean economies is dealing with the issue of small market size, which has only been partially overcome by the very open nature of these economies.”

“It is in the individual countries of the Caribbean interest to seek to be part of a larger regional market that can act as its domestic base from which to launch into international markets. Accelerating trade integration in the CSME will help to increase domestic market size and moving as quickly as possible towards free movement of labour within the region will ease labour skills and shortage,” he stated.

The PM also acknowledged that one of the important areas in which the Caribbean can accelerate activities towards an Information Society is in the policy harmonization relating to ICT.

“The legal enforcement of electronic documents, protection of intellectual property and privacy, development of a framework to support electronic transactions and enforcement of electronic documents and contracts are amongst the priorities in this realm.

“All CARICOM Member States are working on some type of e-Government initiatives and providing e-Government Services. Of note is the fact that all Members States have education and human resources development initiatives identified that may be facilitated through ICTs. The most popular of these is the “one laptop per child or family,” initiative,” Dr. Mitchell highlighted. (TL)