BRADES, Montserrat – “The horizon is limitless and so too are the possibilities,” for Montserrat says Chief Minister Reuben T. Meade, who gave the keynote address at the opening ceremony for the ICT Roadshow Montserrat on Wednesday evening at the Montserrat Cultural Centre.
The leader called for government to use information communication technologies (ICTs) to become more efficient and offer better services for the general public. He challenged department heads and the general public not to send him invitations by regular mail as he prefers to receive his correspondence electronically. He said the legislation is now in place to support the use of electronic information and we must implement it fully from a governmental level.
Despite his push for the nation to use technology more, he said it must be done appropriately without allowing ICTs to control us. “We have stopped talking to one another. Despite technology, we must talk. We must not be tied to ICT and be respectful of others.”
Chief Minister Meade said Montserrat was not a Third World country but a developing one and that the technology must be used to continue the island’s advancement. He shared his desire to see the education and library systems provide more services to teachers, parents and students virtually, cautioning that the protection of data was also vital.
The minister’s remarks were welcomed by Ms. Bernadette Lewis, Secretary General of the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU) who thanked the chief minister for agreeing to champion the cause of the agency on a regional level as well.
The ICT Roadshow Montserrat is the seventh edition of the conference and is organized by the CTU in collaboration with the Government of Montserrat. More information on the roadshow, presenters and activities can be found online at www.ictroadshow.ms.
ENDS
