by Linda Straker
- Covid-19 led to new business and social dispensation for work, business and leisure
- New dispensation is opportunity to reshape regional development paradigm
- Dr Mitchell convinced single Caribbean ICT space is only pathway forward
Dr Keith Mitchell has told participants attending a virtual regional science and technology conference that the Covid-19 pandemic led to the birth of a new business and social dispensation for work, business and leisure.
He said that this new dispensation is enabled by ICT applications and services, which has increased the use of digital platforms for communication like the one used to host the conference. “This has indeed provided a cheaper and more convenient form of connectivity. The pandemic has given cause to reset and reboot the regional development agenda.”
Dr Mitchell addressed the Frontiers of Research in Caribbean Science and Technology (FORECAST 2022) Conference. The event, from 10-12 August, is the first joint conference of the Science Faculties of The University of the West Indies (Cave Hill, Mona and St Augustine) and the University of Technology, Jamaica. The conference theme is “Science and Technology: a D R I V E R of Transformation.”
Dr Mitchell, as the immediate former Prime Minister of Grenada, was the former Lead Head for Science and Technology in the Caricom Quasi Cabinet, said that the new dispensation is creating a new opportunity to reshape the regional development paradigm. “We must now re-engineer government systems and processes, the education system, private sector, and civil society infrastructure and systems, and the whole of society approach with infused ICT and science and technology-enabled applications and services.”
He explained that the digital divide as we knew it several months ago is no longer applicable in this new scenario for regional development. “Everyone needs to be digitally enabled to participate in the new dispensation. Sisters and brothers, coupled with the ongoing pandemic, the global community also faces geopolitical tensions and conflicts that further disrupt the supply chain and negatively affect the prospects for recovery.”
Dr Mitchell noted that as economic and debt crises manifested and energy and food prices escalated, these changes brought further socio-economic challenges to the region. “We must remember that even as we seek to recover from the pandemic, and the economic and social decline, unprecedented warming of the global climate continues, which pose a direct and existential threat to the region. The confluence of these issues has added increasing layers of complexity and difficulty to regional development challenges.”
Participants included top regional scientists and researchers in research and development.
“The foregoing underscored the need to urgently deal with these changes and to escalate the process of building economic, social, and environmental resilience into regional development strategies. I argue that the platform for the resilient economy lies with mainstreaming ICT and science and technology in the regional development strategy through the digital transformation of the economies,” said Dr Mitchell who has been a champion for science and technology to be a key feature of the regional plan.
He is convinced that digitisation of the Caribbean is the only way to the future and the only pathway forward. “It is against this backdrop that the region must embrace and implement the concept of the single ICT space. The single ICT space is critical for forging the environment and technological renaissance necessary for the digital economy to drive economic growth and social transformation in the region,” he said in his keynote address.
“The single ICT space will allow for the development and proliferation of regional ICT-related content, the harmonisation of legislative and regulatory frameworks, the encouragement of digital literacy and entrepreneurship, telecommunications reform and the elimination of roaming charges, sectoral digital leadership, and overall regional digital citizenry,” he reasoned.
“The Single ICT space will be the appropriate framework for the region to counter the risks associated with cybersecurity threats and digital crime in general. The single ICT space will be critical to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and to forge the future that we want under the sustainable development construct. The ICT vision must be anchored with the region working together towards the resilient Caribbean within the framework of a single ICT space.”
The conference encompasses The 6th Faculty of Science and Technology Conference of The UWI, Cave Hill Campus; The 12th Faculty of Science and Technology Conference of The UWI, Mona Campus; The 1st Faculty of Science and Technology Conference of The UWI, St Augustine Campus; The 6th International Science Conference of the UTech, Jamaica and the 2nd Student Grand Innovation Challenge.
Loading...
Reload document 
Open in new tab 
No disrespect to anyone: Technology can present an opportunity when it can improve existing capabilities, providing a pathway to development. However, when they demand costly investment, they might no longer be of benefit to a people. New technologies can reduce the cost of services to which they are applied. They can cause the creation of new products from which consumers benefit, regardless of whether they live in rich or poor countries.
Technology can improve the lives of poor people but to make a real and sustainable contribution to development, it must not only provide better, and cheaper products but also higher-paying jobs. It must help the poor as producers, as well as consumers.
However, technology is not always the answer, because of the know-how, and skills that it requires. There must first be policies in place to improve education to have workers able to “man” the new and sophisticated equipment. But how can we adapt such technology when we cannot even elect a proper government because so many of our citizens are loyal to anyone who can provide a bottle? And even after all that, you cannot have Puppet and reincarnated advisors, and poodle politicians as administrators of a nation. We will fail.
We have to learn to walk before we can run.
Misguided, he has a lack of understanding of issues and knowledge.
Utter rubbish. ThevRegion does not control or have say but instead. More or less just consumers of another G7 technology.
Is there anything homegrown in the region?
While the region push ahead to adopt to G7 policies, the people are behind. There is incentive build local computers/technology.
While places like Grenada attempt to adopt ELECTRIC VEHICLES, public transportation is none existence.
By following the G7 policies, only ensures G7 countries have guaranteed market for their products.
China donates low income housing to the Government and then turns around and give millions in contract to Chinese companies. To add, employs locals below minimum wage. Where is the political will
The point is, the region is at the mercy of and lost it economic and political sovereignty to the G7.
Then you have form PM as poster boy, parading as though he has clout and vision when in fact he is / was a village idiot that facilitated the maladies of his home state.
Who is fooling who?