Commonwealth Connects workshop on e-business and e-government

A two-day Commonwealth Connects workshop on e-business and e-government for the Caribbean region will be held in Barbados from 3 to 4 December 2007.

The workshop is aimed at promoting the use of information and communication technology (ICT) for development by enhancing the use of electronic commerce and governance, besides engaging points of contacts from member countries with the Commonwealth Connects programme to bridge the digital divide between and among communities and states.

The Commonwealth Connects workshop, to be opened by the Senior Minister of Barbados, Dame Billie Miller, will see the participation of officials from 14 Commonwealth Caribbean countries and territories, as well as representatives from the Commonwealth Telecommunications Union, Eastern Caribbean Telecommunications Authority, the Caribbean Community, Caribank and the Inter-American Development Bank.

Participants will study the experiences of specific countries in their implementation of e-commerce and e-governments, the policies and priorities in these fields and ways to improve regional co-ordination, including collaboration with development banks and ICT institutions in the Caribbean, in addition to developing mechanisms for sharing the ICT wealth of the Commonwealth.

Devindra Ramnarine, head of the Commonwealth Connects Secretariat, said: “This workshop will enable participants to contribute to the alignment of the diverse ICT initiatives in the Caribbean, as well as to design mechanisms for Commonwealth Connects to share ICT knowledge and expertise across the region. This effort will support moves towards economic and social integration as the Caribbean accelerates towards a single market economy.’

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