CREATING A DIGITALLY SAVVY NATION

(The following is the address delivered by Hon. Minister of Public Telecommunications & Tourism, Catherine Hughes, at the official opening of Teleperformance Guyana in January 2016.)   

“I bring you greetings from His Excellency President David Granger who sends his own and the entire

Cathy Hughes

government’s blessings and wishes for a profitable future for Teleperformance, Guyana.
This is my first official engagement under my new portfolio of Minister of Public Telecommunications, and I have to say that your vision of “Transforming Guyana through Education and Employment” mirrors the trajectory that this government has set for its advancement.
We are convinced that the only effective way to do this for the benefit of all our people is to ensure that we create a fully functional information-based society and a knowledge-based economy, one in which we must fast track the use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) as the mechanism to transform life in Guyana.
It is only by investing in the requisite infrastructure; by ensuring that we could source the most advanced technologies and provide education and training, that we are going to produce citizens who are properly equipped to become the new entrepreneurs and drivers in our fast moving digital world. This we know from the experiences of other countries. We can transform the quality of services in the public sector which will ultimately enhance the competitiveness and growth of the private sector.
Our vision is to ensure that all of Guyana is Internet ready, with main cities and towns becoming Internet hot spots.  This we can achieve with the collaboration of established service providers.
We want the student in living at Moruca or attending the Bina Hill Institute in the Rupununi to be given the same opportunities to learn and succeed as the Queen’s College student, the Bishops’ or St. Rose’s High School student.
Can you imagine a student in Region 8 being able to join a live class in Georgetown via Skype? The technology exists and we have an obligation to make that giant leap forward to correct the educational inequality.  We are starting the process of creating a digital nation to enable us to participate in the international digital economy.
Here at Teleperformance you have started this through the development and operation of your Call Centre.  Many of your goals and objectives, your CSR and employee development programmes are very similar to the government’s own projections and objectives with respect to the growth of our people, particularly the youth.
I was impressed when I learnt about the programmes that Dr. Dale Dan has espoused and which she intends to implement here to ensure that Teleperformance’s employees are continuously trained; that their qualifications are consistently upgraded so that Teleperformance could retain your Number One global spot in this field of e-service.  I commend you for this initiative and would encourage other companies and agencies in the public and private sectors to emulate it.
Today I come with the weight of the Government of Guyana to tell you that this new enterprise which encompasses customer care, technical support, debt collection and business process operations for international clients, though it’s not new to Guyana, raises the bar very high indeed.  In a way it has established a standard for the growth of the ICT sector in Guyana.

NEW PUBLIC TELECOMMUNICATIONS MINISTRY
President David Granger in his New Year Address to the nation branded this the year of Guyana’s Renaissance, the beginning of a different period of our lives when we actively join the rest of the developed world which has gone fully digital.
We live in a world of change, a New World where everything is instant, everything happens now and the necessary responses and actions cannot wait a day.
The information superhighway is no longer just words that only a few people know.  It is the new way of life and the sooner Guyanese across all ten regions can have access to the internet on demand, the faster this nation will develop; the better we’ll be able to compete toe-to-toe with our trading partners; and more of our bright young children will shine in regional examinations.
The Government of Guyana unreservedly supports the position that access to the internet, and the utilization of Information and Communication Technology will: 1) improve the ability of Government to develop critical services; 2) provide effective cross-cutting support for all our productive sectors; and 3) facilitate the development of ICT as a sustainable, highly profitable, productive sector.
In this vein, we will work to position Guyana well prepared for this world of immediacy through inter-connected schools; inter-connected police stations, hospitals, fire and water services; inter-connected business zones; and homes.
Our promise to this nation is to activate the E-Government programme and increase its capability to make Internet connectivity available to all citizens in the city, in coastal and rural inland communities like Linden and Bartica, and deep into the hinterland.
At present the E-Government Unit is focused on two main ICT ventures:-
Project One is the rollout of a fibre optic network that has capacity for high-speed data, video and voice communication. This project involves the installation of robust infrastructure to consolidate all government processes.
When the preparatory work is done, a fibre optic cable will connect Georgetown to Moleson Creek in the east, to Anna Regina in the west, and Linden and Lethem in the south. Wireless sites will be constructed and activated along these corridors utilizing 4G technologies, to provide connectivity to all of the socio-economic services and facilities mentioned earlier.
The second Project concerns the creation of the Data Network or the Data Centre in Georgetown which will host most of the government’s ICT applications.  The objectives are to improve the quality of our social services, to fight crime, to boost the standard of education, to promote digital literacy, to provide ICT Parks and Centres of Innovation, and generally foster a knowledge-based society.
Immediacy and even spontaneity is what life is all about now, so we’d better get on board or we will be left farther behind.