Dr. Jerrol Thompson, Minister of Telecommunications, Science, Technology and Industry (St. Vincent and the Grenadines) and President of Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU), opened the Caribbean Centre of Excellence Project in Trinidad and Tobago on Sunday, January 29.

The project is an International Telecommunications Union (ITU) funded Project which for the first time brings the CTU, which is an Inter-governmental Regional Telecommunication Policy Organisation, into a cooperative agreement with the Caribbean Association of National Telecommunication Organization (CANTO) and the Caribbean Central America Action (CCAA), both of which are regional private sector organisations. {{more}} These regional organisations have agreed to cooperate with each other in establishing the Caribbean Centre of Excellence.

The Ceremony heard speeches from representatives of each organization. Dr. Jerrol Thompson said that the aim of the Caribbean Centre of Excellence for Telecommunications (CCoE) was to address the requirements of governmental and private stakeholders in the information and telecommunications sector for training, technical assistance, market information and statistics, consensus building on regional issues and representation at international fora.

Training will be conducted on line through a web based format, videoconferencing and also face to face seminars which will be conducted throughout the Caribbean. At the CCoE, listings of ICT professionals, ICT service providers and telecom providers will be posted. It will also promote other public/private partnership for the development of the Caribbean Information Sector.

Dr. Thompson announced that 2006 was a crucial year for ICT in the Caribbean and cited several developments achieved this year. He expressed his pleasure with the historic achievement of the CcoE which will serve to help make the Caribbean more highly competitive in the era of CSME.