CTU still selling MobKEY 16th Executive Council Meeting
ANGUILLA
16-17TH APRIL 2007
The Executive Council Meeting of the Caribbean Telecommunications Union was hosted by the Government of Anguilla from the 16th to 17th April, 2007. The Meeting was kicked off with an Opening Ceremony at 8:30 a.m. on Monday morning. The Hon. Victor Banks, Minister of Finance and Economic Development delivered the feature address on The Importance of Partnership between Public and Private Sectors. Mr. Larry Franklin, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry Infrastructure, Communications, Utilities, Health, Agriculture and Fisheries delivered the welcome address on behalf of the Government of Anguilla, while Anguilla Mr. Phillip Cross International Telecommunication Union Caribbean Representative delivered warm greetings from the ITU and Bernadette Lewis, Secretary General of the CTU gave the vote of thanks.
A total of nine member states were present at the meeting, five attended in person and four via teleconference. The 10th General Conference of Ministers ratified a Constitutional Amendment to permit members to participate in statutory meetings from remote locations via telephone conference to encourage participation by members who may be unable to travel but would still like to be a part of the meetings. State members who attended in person were Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, Montserrat, Trinidad and Tobago and Dominica, while Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Barbados and Grenada attended via teleconference. Also present in Anguilla was Associate Member, International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) represented by President, Tom Ellam and Director, Noel Donowa.
Secretary General of the CTU, Bernadette Lewis presented the CTU’s Strategic Plan for 2007 – 2008 which highlighted the strategic objectives, strategic focus, strengths, challenges, opportunities and threats of the union. The Secretary General emphasized that the Union was giving consideration to the provision of services on a cost recovery basis to the members to improve the financial condition of the Union. Examples of such services are:
National Domain Name Registry and training
Caribbean Domain Name registry
Consultancy services
Mobikey Distribution
The SG pointed out that further analysis on the planned services will need to be conducted prior to making definitive decisions on the services to be provided. Member state, St. Vincent and the Grenadines represented by Minister in the Ministry of Telecommunications, Science, Technology and Industry, Dr. Jerrol Thompson said that in his opinion there are immediate opportunities for consultancy services and he urged that the Secretariat should pursue these initiatives.
Progress Reports on current projects being undertaken by the CTU were presented by Nigel Cassimire, Telecommunications Specialist on Internet Governance and by Selby Wilson, Telecommunications Strategist on Spectrum Management.
The SG also presented a report on an upcoming project funded by the European Union (EU) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) referred to as the EU-ITU Caribbean ICT Harmonisation Project which is designed to assist Caribbean countries in improving their competitiveness by harmonizing approaches to ICT development. It will bring together Caribbean governments, regulators, service providers, civil society, private sector, regional and international organizations involved in ICT. Ms. Lewis emphasized that it is necessary that this project receives the full participation and commitment from member governments and all stakeholders to ensure its meaningful success.
Mr. Timothy S. Ellam, Vice President of The international Amateur Radio Union (IARU) was invited to present an overview of the work being carried out by the organization. Mr. Ellam gave a brief explanation of the interpretation of the term “Amateur” and an overview of the IARU which was founded in Paris in 1925 and its relationship with ITU in the area of Disaster Management and Mitigation. In addition IARU is working with the BDT to develop training course for developing countries. He said that the IARU has offered to support the CTU in Amateur Radio administration Training. Mr. Ellam’s presentation focused on the IARU’s consideration of issues for the upcoming WRC 07 Conference. He said that IARU had a particular interest in agenda items 1.13 and 1.15. IARU considers that the bands 5-10 MHz is ideal for emergency communications.
Dr. Bruce Gracie, Chairman of the Commonwealth ITU Group was also invited to discuss the ITU Initiatives in Communications and Disaster Relief
Member Countries were also invited to give presentations on the status of the ICT sector in their countries. Some very interesting country reports were presented by Montserrat, British Virgin Islands, Dominica and Anguilla. In addition a written submission was made by Barbados. Members in attendance mutually agreed that the 16th Executive Council Meeting was a success and made the commitment to attend the upcoming meeting in October as well as to encourage other member states to attend.
Nexus is a publication of the the Caribbean Telecommunications