2022-06-10 KIGALI, RWANDA
From L to R: Nigel Cassimire, Deputy Secretary General, CTU; Rodney Taylor, Secretary General, CTU; Bevil Wooding, Director of Caribbean Affairs, ARIN; and Nate Davis, Senior Government Affairs Analyst (ARIN)
The Secretary-General of the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU), Mr. Rodney Taylor and Director of Caribbean Affairs for the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), Mr. Bevil Wooding, announced joint plans to accelerate digital transformation and strengthen collaboration to enhance the development and growth of the digital economy in the Caribbean. The announcement was made at the World Telecommunications Development Conference hosted in Kigali, Rwanda.
ARIN and the CTU agreed to ramp up joint activities to support development in areas such as Internet number resource autonomy, Internet Public Policy, cybersecurity, domestic connectivity and Internet traffic exchange, digital empowerment of women, youth and entrepreneurs, and facilitating an enabling business environment for innovation-driven enterprises (IDEs) in the Caribbean region.
Rodney Taylor, the first Barbadian national to head the CTU, emphasized that
“deepening our long-standing relationship with ARIN, a like-minded organization, will help accelerate the vision of CARCIOM Heads of Government to implement a single ICT-space in the region, and strengthen our efforts to support our member-States in addressing digital inequalities and seizing new opportunities that the technology affords”.
Taylor said that the Covid-19 pandemic proved that digital cooperation is more important now than ever, particularly because much work still needs to be done to connect the unconnected, increase access to rural communities, and improve the quality, security and resilience of digital services.
Bevil Wooding, who holds responsibility for ARIN’s outreach to Caribbean governments and stakeholder groups stated that “on the Internet, connectivity and cooperation have always gone hand in hand. We connect our communities and countries better when we cooperate. So, for ARIN, it is very important for us to work together with organizations in the Caribbean like the CTU to tackle important issues such as network resilience, domestic Internet traffic exchange, cybersecurity and, of course Internet access and affordability.”
Wooding shared that ARIN and the CTU have, in the past, jointly developed programs to advance Internet public policy development, technical capacity building, particularly amongst the computer network engineers, and outreach to the justice sector, to raise awareness of the evolving impact of the Internet on judicial and legal practices.
“ARIN looks forward to working with the CTU and its 20 member states to support the organization’s important work in ushering the Caribbean fully into the digital age,” Wooding stated.
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About the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)
ARIN is the nonprofit corporation that manages the distribution of Internet number resources – IPv4, IPv6, and Autonomous System numbers – in many Caribbean and North Atlantic islands, Canada, and the United States. More information about ARIN services, IPv6, and more is available at https://www.arin.net
About the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU)
CTU is an inter-governmental organization dedicated to facilitating development of the regional telecommunications sector. The CTU supports the adoption, regulation and management of information and communications technology (ICT) in the Caribbean; facilitates the coordination and development of intra-regional and international telecommunication networks to meet the immediate and future needs of our Region; provides a forum for discussion and resolution of ICT issues concerning the Region; and assist advocacy in this area, in national, regional and international fora.
