By SHYANNE WILLIAMS
MIAMI, Florida, July 18, 2022 – As local economies continue to recover from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, a call has been made to develop a roadmap to connect the unconnected in the Caribbean.
Delivering the feature address at the opening ceremony of CANTO’s 37th Annual Conference & Trade Exhibition in Miami, The Honourable Mark Anthony Phillips, Prime Minister, and First Vice President of Guyana, urged industry stakeholders to prioritise delivering connections to those most in need.
“Our goal must therefore be nothing less than universal broadband service. No country, no region, no town, no village, no community, and no person should be left unconnected, for we cannot begin to speak of digital evolution without addressing the manifest injustice and inequality of the underlying digital divides,” he said.
After a two-year hiatus in the staging of a live event, regional heads of state and heads of government, along with regulators, and telecom operators, are meeting at the iconic Fontainebleau Hotel to discuss global trends, best-practices, and forge new alliances.
C&W Communications, operators of the Flow, Flow Business, C&W Business and BTC brands in the Caribbean, is the presenting sponsor of the event with this year’s theme of ‘Enabling the Digital Evolution’.
David Cox, Chair of CANTO, welcomed those in attendance and said the non-profit organisation was proud to advocate for policies, legislation and rules which advance the creation of an environment for the deployment of services and technologies around the Caribbean and Americas.
“CANTO’s greatest value is that it is a unique market for ideas. Our agenda has never been to tell people what to think, but to provide a forum where ideas can contend. Our aim is to educate, inform, stimulate, challenge, listen and ultimately promote the development of our people,” he said.
Other feature presenters at the four-day conference include The Right Honourable Philip Davis, Prime Minister of The Bahamas; Aamir Hussain, Senior Vice President, Chief Technology and Product Officer, Liberty Latin America; and Dr. Hyginus Leon, President, Caribbean Development Bank.
