CASTRIES, St. Lucia, Feb 26, CMC – Telecommunication ministers from the Eastern Caribbean meet here on Friday to discuss a wide range of issues including ensuring affordable access, resilient infrastructure, and inclusive digital opportunities for citizens of the sub-region.
ECTEL managing director, David Cox, said that the ministers from Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the host country St. Lucia will meet for ECTEL’s 49th Council of Ministers meeting.
He said the meeting provides “an important platform for regional leaders to reaffirm their commitment to harmonised regulation and digital transformation across our Contracting States.
“As technology continues to evolve, our collective focus remains on ensuring affordable access, resilient infrastructure, and inclusive digital opportunities for citizens of ECTEL states. Through collaboration and forward-looking policy decisions, we will continue to strengthen the region’s electronic communications landscape for sustainable growth and innovation,” Cox said.
ECTEL said that the Council is expected to approve its first ever strategic plan and consider progress regarding the passage of the Electronic Communications Bill that repeals and replaces the Telecommunications Acts with legislation which is broader in scope to encompass electronic communications.
The Bill is aimed at allowing a liberalised and nondiscriminatory entry into the electronic communications sector and enabling a robust competitive environment in which there is fairness, transparency and accountability on the part of the regulators of the sector..
ECTEL said that the meeting will also receive a status report on the World Bank Caribbean Digital Transformation Project, which is an OECS-managed project to reform the electronic communications sector in the sub-region.
The Council will also receive a summary of key findings of the recently launched Digital Inclusion Survey, which will provide detailed analysis of the use of digital tools in ECTEL states.
The functions of the Council, which is the highest decision-making body of the ECTEL framework, are to, among other things, promote the effective implementation of ECTEL’s Treaty; including the promotion of effective competition, accessible pricing, and quality of service for citizens of the region.
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