Bridgetown, Barbaods – 10th October 2023 – The Government of Barbados, in collaboration with the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU) and the Global Government Forum (GGF), will host the Caribbean Digital Summit and ICT Week 2023 from 16th to 20th October 2023 at the Accra Beach Hotel and Spa, Rockley, Christ Church, Barbados.
Each year, the GGF, a United Kingdom based publishing, events and research business, organises a Digital Summit in countries across the globe. The Caribbean Digital Summit brings together national and departmental digital chiefs from across the Caribbean for open, informal discussion on the opportunities and challenges around public sector digital transformation.
The 20 Member State CTU, of which Barbados was a founding member in 1989, hosts its flagship event, CTU ICT Week, annually in one of its Member States. CTU ICT Week 2023 – Barbados brings together CARICOM Ministers and their Permanent Secretaries and senior technocrats with responsibility for information and communication technologies (ICTs) and digital transformation; regulatory agencies and Internet service providers and other ICT stakeholders, both regional and international. In addition to the CTU’s Statutory Meetings and a Strategic Caribbean Ministerial Seminar, a number of fora will be held to sensitise and educate various publics on the advancement of ICTs and to provide opportunities for service providers to showcase their products and for the public to share their views and ideas.
The theme for ICT Week 2023 is “Embracing a Digital Caribbean: Opportunities for Growth and Innovation”. The Week is aimed at promoting ICT development, discussing emerging trends and facilitating meaningful collaboration between various stakeholders in the Caribbean and internationally.
Both events are important at this critical juncture where Barbados and its sister territories in the Caribbean are seeking to implement digital solutions and to enhance their digital infrastructure landscape with a view to improving business facilitation and offer better and more efficient services to their publics. It is envisaged that from the discussions to be held, workable solutions will be generated and possible joint projects will be identified.
Apart from the main events at the Accra Beach Hotel and Spa, the youth will be afforded the opportunity to contribute ideas, insights and perspectives to shape the digital future of the country at a Youth Forum on Friday 20th October at the 3W’s Oval, Cave Hill, St. Michael. Persons with disabilities, who are Blind, Deaf or living with mobility challenges, will benefit from ICT workshops at the Derrick Smith School and Vocational Centre, Jackmans, St. Michael, on Friday 20th October. These workshops will seek to demonstrate how ICTs can make their lives more independent and rewarding and make them more fully included into society.
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