 Chairman of Ectel Council of Ministers, Senior Minister and Ministers for Infrastructure, Ports, Transport, Physical Development and Urban Renewal, Honorary Stevenson King, Members of Ectel Council of Ministers. Chairman of Ectel Board of Directors, Mr. Dwayne Noel, Members of Ectel Board of Directors. Acting Manager of Ectel, Ms. Cheryl Hector-Fontanelle, Director of the OECS, Dr. Dirkus Jules, or the Single Speaker, Dr. James Fletcher, Managing Director of Florecon and Former Chairman of Ectel Council of Ministers. Former Managing Director of Ectel, Mr. Ember Charles and Mr. Andrew Millett, joining us via Zoom. Staff of the Ectel NTRCs and our Partner, Regional and International Organizations, Representatives of Government Ministries. All invited guests in studio on Zoom and on social media and all people of the Ectel member states. Good evening and welcome to the Eastern Caribbean Telecommunications Authority's Inaugural Anniversary Lecture. I'm your host, Coretta Ciccaros, Ectel Communications and Media Relations Manager. The theme promises to be a concise yet worthwhile lecture is the Electronic Communications Bill from liberalization to digital transformation. We selected that theme because earlier this year we launched our Electronic Communications Bill, also known as the EC Bill, Education and Public Awareness Campaign, with the aim to raise great awareness of the EC Bill and its many benefits to our consumers in our five member states of the Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and even St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The Telecommunications Act has been in existence for over two decades and the time has come for Ectel in collaboration with all stakeholders to put measures in place to implement a new regulatory framework as enshrined in the EC Bill, which will strengthen consumer rights, modernize spectrum management, promote access to affordable broadband, update legal and regulatory framework for digital transformation and develop regulatory framework to monitor and measure quality service and quality of customer experience. So to help us skillfully navigate the discussion, our special guest is Dr. James Fletcher. But before we invite Dr. Fletcher to deliver his presentation, it's my pleasure to invite the Honourable Stevenson Keke, Senior Minister and Minister of Infrastructure, Sports, Transport, Physical Development and Urban Renewal in St. Lucia and Chairman of Ectel's Council of Ministers to deliver the opening remarks. Thank you. Thank you, my members of the ceremony. Members of the Ectel's Council of Ministers who are tuned in. Chairman of the Ectel Board of Directors and Dwayne Noel. Members of the Ectel Board of Directors acting, managing, director of Ectel, Mr. Sherrill, Ectel, the Honourable General, Director General of UECS, Dr. Dr. Kucer-Jewel. Our next speaker is Dr. James Fletcher, also managing director of Solidarity and former chairman of Ectel's Council of Ministers. Former managing director of Ectel, staff of Ectel, NTRC's and other partners regional and international organizations, representatives of government ministries, all invited guests here with us in the studio on the room and other social media. Fletcher, good evening. On behalf of the Council of Ministers, I'm delighted to congratulate the Eastern University Telecommunications Authority, Ectel, for 22 years of regular leadership in the electronic communications sector. Welcome to this inaugural annual lecture on the theme of the Electronic Communication Bill from Liberalization, Digital Transmissions. This theme is exceedingly timely and an R-Lite e-code of James Fletcher will bring in a clear picture of Ectel's role in liberalization on the realising telecommunications sector, breaking the norm of monopoly, securing standards and benefits for consumers, and now ushering in a new era of digitally transformable economies. As I'm referring to the past many years, I want to recognize the achievements and vision for the future. No organization can success us without our dedicated, visionary, highly-motivated and committed people. As I congratulate Ectel, I want to recognize the lead Prime Minister, Rosie Douglas, of the Commonwealth of Dominica, Prime Minister Dr. D'Honnappese Mitchell of Pineda, former Prime Minister, Dr. Sirstensial L. L. Douglas, of St. St. Kittsonson University, former Prime Minister, Dr. John Honourable Kenny Anthony of St. St. Sturgeon, and the late former Prime Minister, Prime Minister James G. Mitchell of St. Vincent and the Greens, the five Prime Ministers who signed the Ectel Treaty back in 2000. They had the foresight to recognize that as a whole, the Ectel member states could accomplish more of their citizens than any one member state could ever do. The Ectel Council of Ministers has been a guiding force for the progressive policies that have enabled the sector to grow from mobile penetration of 7.8% in 2002 to more than 96% in 2022. At the same time, the Ectel Board of Directors has ensured that the Directorate for Proposals Mandate has set out in the treaty. Over the past 22 years, the Ectel Directorate has been ably led by a number of excellent leaders. I pause to recognize the contribution of Mrs. Cosworth, Manchester, and Donnie the Freightress, who are no longer with us. More recently, Mrs. Elided Williams, M. Bacchard, and Andrew Millet have left their marks while addressing the world of Ectel. Special congratulations to the past and present staff of Ectel Directorate, who have provided a grand alliance to the Ectel Council of Ministers and Board of Directors, and ensured the successful implementation of the policies of the governments of member states, resulting in benefits to consumers of electronic communications services. I also recognize the National Telecommunications and Religion Commission, who have partnered with Ectel over the past 23 years in ensuring the efficient regulation of the very important and dynamic electronic communications sector. Let me briefly therefore highlight three of Ectel's achievements over the past 22 years, which I think are very tangible and are positively impacted on consumers and the budget. Firstly, Ectel is committed to affordable electronic communications services for all, has recommended reductions in the price of fixed services, and has slow-load potential increases in mobile and broadband services through the region. This year, Ectel recommended new mobile safeguards, which require all mobile service providers to inform consumers when they are using a service out of plan to reduce the likelihood of a customer on knowingly depleting their prepaid credit, a very critical initiative. Secondly, in 2007, Ectel recommended a framework for universal service fund in all the member states, and has worked with the five National Telecommunications Regulatory Commissions to develop a universal service fund in each member state. The USF, as it is called, allows for fees collected from service providers to be used to fund projects aimed at expanding affordable access to electronic communications services and devices. Since the launch of the USFs and a number of low-income households, persons with disabilities, schools, community access points, and health centers have benefited from free or low-cost, high-quality internet access. The continuing need for the USF was emphasized during the COVID-19 pandemic, and a number of students were able to participate in remote learning using devices and subsidized services provided by the USFs. Thirdly, in 2019, Ectel implemented mobile number portability across the member states. This was a significant milestone in the development of the sector as number portability provides benefits to service providers and consumers alike. Consumers are now free to change service provider and keep the mobile number, relieving them of the aggravation of having to notify family, friends, and clients that their number has changed. Mobile number portability also lowers the barriers to market entry as a new service provider may find it easier to attract customers if they can keep their numbers. As we transition to the digital transformation era, Ectel's role as a regional regulator for electronic communication services is even more important now than when it was established. A digital economy is much more reliant on stable, high-quality, affordable broadband service and Ectel's mission to provide transformative regulatory leadership which results in a competitive and innovative electronic communication sector in these challenging times must be realized. The road ahead is not without its challenges. To ensure a vibrant digital economy, there must be competitively priced access to submarine cable capacity, and this for sure the current telecommunications act and regulations do not address this important issue which can be resolved by the promulgation and enforcement sorry of the electronic communications bill, EC bill. The council of ministers remains steadfast to its commitment to promulgate the EC bill. I would like to therefore reiterate my heartfelt thank you and congratulations to the dedicated staff of the directorate for working tirelessly over the past 22 years in fulfillment of Ectel's mission. Sincere gratitude to my colleague members of council, Ectel's board of directors, the national telecommunications regulatory commissions, our stakeholders including service providers and the public at large for their role in Ectel's success. Happy 22nd anniversary, Ectel, and heirs to another 22 years. I thank you. Thanks minister, I tend to forget the mask. Thanks minister King for taking a moment to highlight some of the pioneers who were instrumental in shaping the directorate and those members of council, board of directors and current staff who are continuing the mantle of fulfilling our mission to provide transformative regulatory leadership which results in a competitive and innovative electronic communication sector. Dr. Fletcher is indeed well known. Nonetheless, I'll use this opportunity to give you some more insight about our esteemed speaker. James Fletcher was the minister for public service, information, broadcasting, sustainable development, energy, science and technology in St. Lucia from 2011 to 2016. During his tenure, he led an aggressive modernization of the energy sector, commissioned modern ICT centers in several underserved communities, started the program for free island-wide Wi-Fi, developed a 311 call center for information on public service matters, initiated water development projects in Viewfort and the Denry Valley and established an employee assistance program to provide free confidential counseling to public officers. James Fletcher played a leading role in the Caribbean's 1.5 to stay alive civil society campaign and during the COP 21 negotiations, he was selected by the COP president to be part of the ministerial team that helped to achieve consensus on the elements of the Paris Agreement. He was recognized by global optimism in profiles of Paris as one of the people who played a key role in creating the historic Paris Agreement. In 2019, he was selected by the United Kingdom's Schevening Scholarship Programme as one of 35 global change makers. James Fletcher Carly manages his own company, Solaricon. He wrote and published the book governing in a small Caribbean island state and recently he offered the chapter, the Battle for Small Island Developing States in the Cambridge University Press Publication, Negotiating the Paris Agreement, The Insider Stories. In 2020, he launched the Caribbean Climate Justice Project which advocates for climate justice for the people most impacted by climate change. He holds a PhD degree in planned physiology from the University of Cambridge and a BSc honours in biochemistry from the University of Ottawa. Let's put our hands together for Dr. James Fletcher. Thank you very much, Coretta, mistress of ceremonies. Chairman of the Actile Council of Ministers, Senior Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Ports, Transport, Physical Development, and Urban Renewal, a portfolio that's even longer than the one I held. Honourable Stevenson King, Members of the Actile Council of Ministers, Chairman of the Actile Board of Directors, Mr. Dewey Nwell, Members of the Actile Board of Directors, Acting Manager and Director of Actile, Ms. Cheryl Hector-Fontanelle, Director General of the OECS, Dr. Didekas-Jules, Former Managing Directors of Actile, Mr. Amber Charles and Mr. Andrew Millet, Staff of Actile, the National Telecommunications Regulatory Commission's NTRCs and other partner regional and international organisations, representatives of government ministries, all invited guests in studio, on Zoom, social media, and wherever else in the ether you may happen to be. Good afternoon. First of all, let me thank Mrs. Cheryl Hector-Fontanelle and the staff of Actile for bestowing on me the singular honour of delivering the inaugural Actile Anniversary Lecture. Thank you so very much. I was quite pleased when I was chosen to deliver this lecture and even more so when I saw the topic from Liberalization to Digital Transformation, which is a subject that occupied my interests when I was Minister of Responsibility for Telecommunications from 2011 to 2016, but has continued to occupy my interests in my various operations since the meeting office as Minister in 2016. So I want to thank Actile for one, the honour, and secondly, for the choice of subject. So those of you who are in studio will have to look at this one small television over there. Hopefully you will be able to see. So those in the front, I will not mind if you turn your back to me and look. That's okay. I won't feel slighted by what you're doing. The Electronic Communications Bill from Liberalization to Digital Transformation. Where did we come from? Those of you who are familiar with your technology would know what this is. This is an old switchboard. This is the way in which calls were connected not that long ago. I remember when I studied in England and I had to communicate with my, not study in England, I actually studied in Canada, and I had to communicate with my parents and friends. You had to go through the cable and wireless switchboard to get patched through. And that kind of technology was what dictated our communication not that long, at least certainly during my lifetime. Before liberalization, we had a situation where cable and wireless had exclusive long-term licenses and provided all telecommunication services, local and international, in all states of the organization of Eastern Caribbean states. There were high tariffs, even on local calls. I'm sure some of you will remember calling from castries to viewfort and that attracting a trunk call. I mean castries to viewfort was like making an international call back then. We've come a long way. There was absolutely no regulation. Our service provider did whatever our service provider felt it needed to do in order to protect its interests. And there was no recourse for consumers. Then we started on a journey that would get us to liberalization. It was started by a company in Dominica called Mappin. And I think, you know, I was having a chat with the former managing director of Ektel, Miss Amber Charles. And we were discussing the need to chronicle that journey. Because I think it's absolutely important that people understand where it is we will and where we are right now and the players that are responsible for getting us there. Because very few people would know that it's as a result of Mappin challenging the cable and wireless monopoly in 1996 that this actually triggered a series of events that eventually led to the liberalization of the telecommunication sector. The government of the Commonwealth of Dominica granted Mappin a 50-year license on its new on the telecommunications act that it had passed, I think in the year before in 1995. And then that precipitated a series of challenges, legal challenges between Mappin and cable and wireless that eventually went to the Privy Council and the Privy Council sent it back to the OECS Court of Appeal and the OECS Court of Appeal did not get a chance to adjudicate on the ruling that it had made that upheld the decision of the Dominica High Court that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the decision by the government of Dominica because that was overturned. Well, they didn't have to go in that direction because liberalization took place. But in 1997, the group of prime ministers that Honorable Stevenson King mentioned gave a mandate to the OECS Secretary to pursue the liberalization of the telecommunication sector. So in 1997, this journey was started. And the journey came to a conclusion, at least that part of it, on the 4th of May, 2000, when the Ectel Treaty was signed among five member states of the OECS. The Commonwealth of Dominica, Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis, Grenada, St. Vincent de Grenadines, and St. Lucia. You will note that Antigua is not part of the union. It was not part then and unfortunately it remains outside of the Ectel union although there has been cooperation. The Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis was the first to pass the Telecommunications Act in January 2000 and that's significant because the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis has continued its pioneering work and I'll come to that in a while. But St. Kitts and Nevis was actually the first of the five member states of the Ectel union to pass the Telecommunications Act in January 2000. The Telecommunications Act gave effect to the Ectel Treaty that established the NTRCs, the National Telecommunications Regulatory Commissions, but most importantly, it rescinded the monopoly rights of cable and wireless in the Ectel member states. So cable and wireless no longer had that suffocating monopoly that allowed it to dictate the pace of telecommunications, the pace of progress, the pace of digital modernization in the OECS. And just for us to look at maybe a very simple before and after, fix to fix local calls in the same zone, cost 17 cents for two minutes before liberalization. Today, they are seven cents a minute during the day and four cents a minute at night. Fix to fix calls outside your zone. Used to cost 84 cents a minute, 84 cents, sorry, for three minutes. Now the same thing, seven cents a minute during the day, four cents a minute at night. International direct dialing. Remember that thing, how great that was, international direct dialing? International direct dialing to the USA from a fixed line in the OECS, attracted a cost of $14.09 for three minutes. Now it's a dollar 60 per minute. And across the ECTEL states, calling another ECTEL state was $3.25 a minute. Now it's 50 cents a minute. So they're just looking at that, not even looking at anything else. There have been some very tangible economic benefits to the residents in the ECTEL member states from liberalization. But other comparisons. We had 152,940 fixed lines across the ECTEL territories in 2001. Now we have less than 88,000. Fixed lines have been a victim of the modernization of the telecommunication sector. How many people in this room still have a fixed line? That's actually impressive. Yeah, that's impressive. Mobile penetration, that was at 9% in 2001. Now it's over 100%. It took a beating during COVID. I think it dipped slightly below 100% but prior to COVID, mobile penetration in ECTEL was over 100%. Employment by service providers. Again, I'm showing you what, how the telecommunications and the advances in technology have affected the service provider itself. We had 1,139 people employed by the service providers in 2001. Now the last figures we had for 2020 were 784. So there has been some significant attrition among the service providers. Fortunately, investment has remained buoyant in 2001, $103 million of investment that year in 2020, $153 million. The liberalization journey has been one that I think has as highlighted as Minister King spoke, the very many significant gains that ECTEL has been able to make and has brought to the people of the Eastern Caribbean. The first price cap agreement of cable and wireless was in April 2001. Digicel was launched in St. Vincent, the Grandin's and St. Lucia in March 2003. And again, this is why I think it's important for us to highlight the role of ECTEL. I remember when I worked at the OECS Secretariat between 2008 and 2011, in preparing for the OECS Economic Union, we did a series of focus group meetings and particularly the young people, young people who studied at South Hollywood Community College. If you ask them who was responsible for the improvements that they were seeing in telecommunications and the low prices they were seeing, they said Digicel. They did not understand that it was ECTEL. They didn't understand that it was as a result of the work that ECTEL had done, that ECTEL paved the way for the entry about Digicel and at one point St. Lucia also had AT&T. And it was as a result of that competition that we started to see a reduction in prices, but also an improvement in the services that were being offered. So again, that's why it's vitally important for that story to be told, because it resides in a few heads now, but our young generation need to understand that when ECTEL was formed, it was the first of its kind, as far as I recall, in the world, a multi-country telecommunications regulator. That is a significant achievement. Rates for fixed and mobile services were regulated for the first time in December 2004. ECTEL approved universal service fund regulations, as minister King spoke of earlier in November 2009. Its first cost-based interconnection rates were approved by council in 2009 also. Number portability was introduced in 2019, and we had a fight for number portability, as Mr. Charles can tell you. Number portability was one of these very interesting things. Number portability was, you could tell who's the dominant service provider based on who is in support and who is against number portability. When we first raised the issue of number portability, there was one service provider that was dead-set against it because it was a dominant service provider, and it felt that number portability would have made it too easy for some of its customers to move over to the other service provider. However, by the time the market started to change and dominance shifted, the service provider that was dead-set against number portability ended up being the service provider that said, we have no problem with it. Go ahead and do it. Because the other service provider, again, being the one that, and again, it switched because the service provider that before was in favor of it started expressing some reservations because they understood number portability gives the consumer the ultimate choice. One of the things consumers, particularly consumers at a higher level, a high-end, a higher income bracket, did not want the hassle of shifting service provider because of the number of people you'd have to inform that your number has changed. It was just too onerous. But the fact that you could now move from one service provider to another and keep your number, that created ultimate choice for the consumer. And again, that was one of these things that allowed us to gauge who was the dominant service provider. And Electronic Communications Act was promulgated in St. Kitts and Nevis in 2021. So St. Kitts and Nevis has proven to be a pioneer more for the first telecommunications act in 2000 because it was the first country that passed the act in 2000. And now St. Kitts and Nevis, the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis, has kept up this tradition by being the first country in the Ectel Union to promulgate the Electronic Communications Act. Unfortunately, that act has not yet been brought into force and hopefully it will be done very soon and the other countries in the Ectel Union will follow suit and pass the EC Act and enact it. So the Electronic Communications Bill. Now there's an interesting story of this one. Consultations were started in some notes I see 2009, in some notes I see 2006. In fact, I remember when my very first meeting of Ectel, I went into my first Ectel meeting, my first Ectel Council meeting on the first of March, 2012. I stepped right into the position of Chairman of the Ectel Council of Ministers. The biggest item on the agenda there was the Electronic Communications Bill. Mr. Charles can bear me out on that. He was there. And the discussions we had were over competition commission. Do we put in a competition commission? There was talk at the time that OECS would have its own competition commission. So there was unsure whether we needed to put in a competition commission, make provisions for it within the Electronic Communications Bill or whether that has been dealt with outside by the OECS. Another issue that we were concerned about was broadcasting. How do we treat the broadcasting? Yes, Ectel and the NTRCs have responsibility for the allocation of spectrum licenses, spectrum licenses for the broadcasters, but who will regulate content? Nobody's regulating content and we need to regulate content. At the time we felt that that was out of the preview of Ectel and that the countries needed to put in their own broadcast bills to deal with content. That has suffered the same fate with the EC bill. 10 years later in St. Lucia, we still have no broadcasting legislation in place, despite the OECS secretariat having done some very good work with producing a draft broadcasting bill and regulations. Should the NTRCs be given authority to oversee and manage licenses to broadcasters? That was one of the questions we were dealing with. The funding arrangements, they must promote the independence of Ectel and the NTRCs. I don't know how it is now, but during my time as a minister, there was always this tussle between the NTRCs and Ectel. The NTRCs always felt that they needed to have more independence, that Ectel was the one determining their budget. So they could not flex. They couldn't be the big men that they wanted to be in and that they needed to be some clarity in the role of Ectel with respect to the NTRCs. And hopefully that is now being resolved with the EC bill making it possible for the NTRCs to be bodies corporate, but I'll come to that in a while. But that was one of the tussles that existed at the time. The friction between Ectel and the NTRCs, not all NTRCs, but some NTRCs wanted to push ahead and do things and they felt that Ectel had this umbilical cord attachment to them that was making it a little bit difficult for them to be as proactive as they would have liked. And this is something that I said in 2012 when I addressed a consultation, 11th of April, 2012, a consultation on the EC bill. I now regret these words. If this bill is a fetus and an act of parliament, a living child, it is probably the case that we are nearer to the end of the second trimester than to actual booth. I actually said so 10 years ago. I must tell you that this is the absolute longest gestation period I've ever seen for any piece of legislation. And that's unfortunate. And I'll come to that a little bit later on in my presentation. But had I known then that the third trimester would be the first and second trimester multiplied by four, I probably would not have said that. I really thought that back then, we were yes, there was need for consultation. I remember in that speech, I did say that it was an iterative process that I did tell the participants that they should not expect that the bill will be passed right away, that it was better to do it properly, that we didn't want to rush and burden the regulator with a lot of onerous responsibilities. And at the same time, we did not want to water down the role of the regulator. So we had to proceed with a certain level of circumspection, but I really didn't think it would have taken so long. And that was highlighted in 2015, 2016. And this is two pieces of correspondence between the then managing director of Hector, Mr. Ember Charles, and the then CEO of Cable and Wireless. Let me again, Phil Bentley, is that his name? Bentley. Bentley, right? Yeah. Where when the merger was proposed between Calcom International Limited, Columbus Communications and Cable and Wireless, we were not happy as a council in the way in which Cable and Wireless had proceeded with this. They basically informed us that the merger was taking place. There was no, there was no pre-warning. There was no seeking of permission. Licenses were being transferred. And quite rightly, the then managing director of Hector on the advice of council wrote to Cable and Wireless and said that what you're doing is not right. That there needs to be, first of all, you need to write to the respective ministers in each of the member states where this will take place to inform them that you plan on doing this and to seek their permission. And we also put in place a series of things that we wanted to see done. We wanted information, for example, on how they would decommission, what would then be redundant cables on some of the poles so that they would make it easier for other service providers to use those poles and a range of other things. And as far as Cable and Wireless was concerned, that's not in the regulations. It's not in the EC Act. I tell you, I hear you, but respectfully, we're moving ahead. And so the absence of the EC bill there really hurt us. And this email highlights this. This is my then colleague, minister for telecommunications from Grenada, Gregory Boyne, who was actually one of the pioneers in getting the liberalization process moving. And this is an email that he sent to Emberton Corporate, well, sent to all of us, dated February 24th, 2016, MD. I suggest that all their points may be reviewed for accuracy, particularly the VAT aspect. The solution, EC bill to be passed. A draft should be circulated to the various countries as a matter of priority. All Cable and Wireless actions should be perused to ensure compliance with existing laws in the various markets. Even back then in 2016, we were hoping that, okay, let's get that bill passed, because that is the only thing that will give us the legislative muscle that we need to deal with Cable and Wireless. Six years later, we are not there yet. And to show you how things have moved on, remember these devices? Those are the things that concerned us in 2016. Magic Jack, Vibe, Skype, Vonage, and that was a cause of serious consternation of the service providers. This whole question of natural trality, I've never, ever, ever heard in my life, heads of service providers being so concerned about government revenue, because we were being told by the heads of DigiCell and Cable and Wireless, but government is losing so much money by not taxing these people. You're allowing them to operate in your jurisdiction and you're not doing anything about it and you need to tax them. I say really, since when has Cable and Wireless or DigiCell been so concerned about government revenue? But that was their approach to try, as far as they were concerned, to level the playing field. But what these two service providers did not understand is that the same technology that they were making available that was disrupting business in other sectors was also disrupting their business. And they just felt that they should be insulated. That no, no, no, it's okay for us to provide the technology that would disrupt other businesses, but we must be insulated. We do not have to change our business model. We don't have to change the way we operate so that we can take advantage of those technologies. The only response they had was tax them, put duties on them. And repeatedly, we would say to them, okay, give us a model. And they would never come back with a model. No, no, no, no, minister, you just have to tax them. What is the current landscape in the Ectel member states? Well, interestingly, local traffic, both fixed and mobile, has dropped significantly. And it still shocks me now when almost every call, I'm exaggerating, seven out of every 10 calls I receive is a WhatsApp call. I mean, that is absolutely mind blowing. And that has had significant impact on the telecommunications, the electronic communications landscape and on the revenue of these service providers. Again, their own technology is disrupting them, but they have themselves to blame. They've been telling people, get better data plans. If you're telling people get data plans, why are you worried that they're using the data plans to make calls? Because you're the ones making it possible for them to do it. So local traffic has gone on significantly. The one where it was extremely important for me as a minister to safeguard, and that's why I held my ground together with Camilo, with Gregory, with Minister Byron and others, was to protect international traffic. Because that was the one that we felt was absolutely sacrosanct, that we could not allow the service providers to continue to gouge consumers by charging them so much money for international traffic. And we said to them, and I remember distinctly saying to them repeatedly, this is now facilitating small businesses, allowing them to communicate with each other. This is allowing parents to communicate with their children, grandparents to talk to their grandchildren who's studying overseas. You want us to go back to the day when you would charge $20 for a form and call? No, we will not allow that to happen. Yes, we may be losing some revenue, but this is facilitating commerce among medium and small, micro-small and medium enterprises that hitherto would not have been possible. It is allowing a level of social interaction between active citizens and the diaspora that would not have been possible. We are safeguarding this as a public good. And you can see what has happened. International traffic has plummeted. Again, the technology disrupting the service providers. Unfortunately, service provider employment has also taken a nosedive. Roger, if you could put that slide up for me, please. Right. This is service provider employment has gone from a high of around 1600 and 2008 to somewhere below 800 in 2020. There has been significant attrition. Now, that's among the service providers, but the service providers have also subcontracted services to other people. So that's not employment in the sector. That's just employment within the service providers because if you look at cable and wireless, for example, the large numbers of people that it usually, it used to employ with technical staff, those people are now, they have now formed their own companies and they go out doing this. Call centers have been contracted out. So the service providers have suffered, but the sector itself, in fact, I would add that there is more employment in the sector now than there was before liberalization. It's just that the employment is not dominated by two people or by one company. Fixed versus mobile penetration, most of the connectivity we have now is via mobile. It's not fixed. Those of us, and I didn't put my hand up too, but those of us who still have fixed line are a dying breed. And broadband penetration has remained relatively flat for fixed, but has gone up significantly for mobile. Mobile broadband penetration, again, that's what they're using for them to make the WhatsApp calls. Or they're using the free Wi-Fi that's available. But at least we're seeing mobile broadband penetration go up and the higher this goes, the better because that's where the commerce will take place. That's where the actual value added in businesses take place. But that's not peculiar to the Caribbean region. If you look at the World Development Report, it's a report for 2021. It shows that in almost all jurisdictions, high income, upper middle income, low middle income, low income, and globally, the number of broadband subscriptions for 100 people is much higher for wireless than it is for fixed. So there's nothing peculiar about us. We are just following a global trend. So it takes us to the EC build. The Electronic Communications Bill that we are on the verge of seeing come into fruition in all of our member states. What is new in that bill? Well, first of all, there's an actual provision for net neutrality. So there can be no more conversation about net neutrality and whether some service providers will throttle bandwidth for some of the over-the-top services or charge differently that has been taken care of. There's regulation of competition. The OECS has decided that it will not move ahead with its competition commission. So competition is now entrenched in the Electronic Communications Bill. So we now have both a provision to deal with competition but also change of control and ownership of licenses. That would make the anxiety and the tensions that we experienced in 2015, 2016, when Columbus and Cable and wireless merge will make that a thing of the past. We now have the legislative muscle to deal with it. The investigative and judicial functions have been separated. Electronic Communications Tribunal can now be established to deal with matters where that would normally, before, have had to go to a court and get tied up in the court system. There is an Electronic Communications Tribunal that can be empaneled to deal with those issues, which is very, very necessary. There are rules now for access to submarine cables and as you know, the submarine cables are what will take the data from one country to another. We did not have access to those before. That is now in the Electronic Communications Bill. There's a provision for number portability, again entrenched in the bill, which is important. The NTRC is established as Bodies Corporate. There is provision for consumer protection and quality of service, which I'll come to in a while. There is a provision for something that I always, and Ambat will tell you that it was a pet peeve of mine and I raised it almost at every council meeting. And that was even before I got so immersed in the whole climate change and disaster risk reduction discussion. I always felt that there should have been a provision that during an emergency, it should be possible for a consumer to switch from one service provider to another if their service provider is down. So let's assume I am a cable and wireless consumer and cable and wireless is down because of the passage of a hurricane. There should be something that allows me to switch to digital during the period when a disaster has been announced by the government and I do not incur any extra costs. And vice versa from digital to cable and wireless. There must be some fluidity during a period of a national disaster that does not put the public in a disadvantageous position. And I'm very happy that there is a provision in the EC bill for emergency communications. Universal service and access fund. I cannot tell you how much seeing that gives me joy. The number of battles that we had with our NTRC over the interpretation of the universal service fund that it should only provide access, but it should not provide access devices. And it bugged me because we had other NTRCs in our jurisdiction, in the Hector jurisdiction, St. Vincent de Grenadines being one that very creatively uses its universal service fund to provide access devices. But in St. Lucia, and nothing wrong with the position taken by the director, the director was just very strictly interpreting the regulations, the telecommunications act. As she said, minister, I don't have a problem, but you need to amend it if you want me to do what it is that you want to do. Minister, you know there's some things that you cannot argue with, that's one of them. And for me, this was analogous to setting up banks all around the country, but not giving people ATM cards or bank books to access the money. It didn't make any sense. So yes, we were providing service in underserved areas, but the people living in these underserved areas did not have access devices to access that service. So logically, intuitively, it made sense to also provide them with access devices. Fortunately, the universal service and access fund on the electronic communications bill makes this possible, but also makes possible innovative things like grants for entrepreneurship and so this is a move in the right direction and certainly one that I welcome. And the management of country level domains is also very important. The Telecommunications Act had a passing reference to management of domains, but the management of country level domains is given much greater treatment, much more detailed treatment in the EC bill and that's important because while I'm not advocating that governments move in and say that we want to manage these country level domains because it might be a little bit onerous for governments and let's face it, there are a lot of things governments do not do well, so I would not advocate taking on board something else that would just gum up the system for a more elegant way of putting it, but the government must have some say in the domains that are registered under the country level domain because there's a reputational risk there. You do not want somebody registering and I'm going to be inelegant now, xxx.porn.lc, you would want to have some say in what comes under the .lc domain. You don't want xxx, I'm sorry, www.allxmustdie.lc, so government, even if government does not take over the actual administration of the domain, there must be at the very least some insistence on a public-private partnership where the government has a say in what are the domains that are registered under its .lc, .dm, and all of the other country level domains, so I'm very happy to see this in the EC bill. So we come to the point of digital transformation, so we've had the liberalization, so we now at the point of digital transformation, what does this mean? Well, it means now that we are at a point in the development of our society, in the development of our global society where change is happening exponentially. The kinds of things that you're seeing happening around you, artificial intelligence, the internet of things, I can stay now, take my phone, speak to Alexa, and Alexa can turn lights on at my home, can start music going in some places. Alexa can do all sorts of things. I worry sometimes about the number of things Alexa can do, and I believe that it is very naive of me to think that Alexa is not listening to everything that I'm saying, but it's only when I say Alexa, Alexa wakes up. So you do not know what else Alexa is listening to and what Alexa might be recording or what Alexa might be filing away for reference, but that is the world we live in, and if you want to be connected, and if you, unless you are a complete roommate, or a leadite, or somebody who figures, look, I don't want to go down that route, then you will have something, it could be Alexa, it could be Siri, it could be someone, artificial intelligence, that will have some connection with you. Robotics, now, becoming very popular, autonomous vehicles. My only comfort of autonomous vehicles is that I do not believe we will ever see a self-driving taxi in Zinluxia. And if we do see one, I will never take a self-driving taxi to go down to Sofray. I do not care how well they've worked out the GPS coordinates, and how well Elon Musk or whoever it is has done this. I will not, I won't even take it to go up Pavi, much less to go down to Sofray. So I think there's some things that we insulated against, at least they will not happen yet, but autonomous vehicles is one of them. But autonomous vehicles are commonplace in some countries. 3D printing, 3D printing is becoming quite, but there's a young guy in Zinluxia, Coyote James, and Coyote is doing some excellent work with a company called Real 3D, I've used them. I was, I did a Zinluxian monopoly recently called Lushanopoly, actually quite interesting. But I wanted the game pieces to be authentic game pieces. So I have a bat, I have a canna, we have a cold port, and I wanted those pieces to, I didn't want to use the dog and the hat and the boat and the car. And he printed them for me. But the other thing he does is that if you have a part missing from your ninja or something, he will manufacture it. And so that's here already. And that, we're seeing 3D printed houses. We're seeing all sorts of things from 3D printing. And biotechnology and genetic engineering, that is now something that is commonplace. I have a biochemist, so I don't have the aversion to genetic engineering that many people have. I have an aversion to it being used in particular manners, in particular ways that are unethical, but I believe genetic engineering will allow us to deal with certain diseases and to be able to build in certain things into some crops that will allow us particularly to deal with things like climate change, as long as you do not make it proprietary so that you prevent people from accessing that the progeny of those plants. Renewable energy generation and storage, sometimes very near to my heart. A lot of that now is being managed by AI, by artificial intelligence, quantum computing, nanotechnology. This is now, this is the world we're living in. So, and that change is happening exponentially. I read something recently that said that the amount of new technical information is doubling every two years. And the consequence of that is that if you go into university or college and you're studying for a technical degree, there's a very strong likelihood by the time you finish your third year or your fourth year, that half of what you learned would have been obsolete by the time you graduate. That's our reality, and that is where we find ourselves. And you know, Kurzweil, I'd recommend this book, The Singularity is Near, When Humans Transcend Biology. He said that people intuitively assume that the current rate of progress will continue for future periods, but it's not. We're actually living in an exponential curve, but we do not understand it, because if you look at a small piece of an exponential curve, it actually looks like a street line. But change is happening exponentially around us. And we have to position ourselves in a way that we can take advantage of it. Look at jobs that used to exist that no longer exist. When was the last time you saw a VCR, a CDO, a fax machine repair person? When was the last time you saw a switchboard operator? A video store employee. You know, remember we used to go and rent our VHSs? Where has that gone? A film processing shop employee. I used to love going to Cadiz. Cadiz, and but it used to be a regular there, being the keen photographer that he is. You don't do that anymore. You now have 20 megapixel cameras on your phone that take pictures that are even better than your best SLRs took back in the day. A record DVD shop employee. I love records and CDs. So I experience this nostalgia. Every time I go to the US, I still must go to Best Buy. And even if it's five CDs, I still must go and look at the five CDs that are on the rack. But that's not the way music is sold anymore. It's downloaded. And newspaper publishing stuff. People are reading their news online instantaneously. Yes, there are some countries where hard copy is still sought after, but by and large, newspapers have taken a beating. And newspaper publishing staff have gone the route of... Did not exist 10, 15 years ago. An app developer, a social media manager, an Uber or Lyft driver, and I'll come to that at the end of this presentation. A driverless car engineer, it's a big deal. I'm a cloud computing specialist, big data analyst, sustainability manager, YouTube content creator, drone operator, drone operator is in high demand now. Can you imagine thinking that you'd have 10, 15 years ago, you'd have had control of this plane that can go anywhere and take pictures and go far distances and come back. That's where we are, telemedicine physician, search engine optimization specialist, podcast producer. These are all jobs that are sought after that did not exist 15 years ago. I dare you to come up with a list of jobs that you think will be available in the next 10 years. You can't. It's just because things are moving so quickly. In the next decade, it has been predicted that artificial intelligence will most likely replace speech transcribers. That's already there. I mean, in 1998, I remember going to another one of my favorite stores in the US called J&R Music World. They've also died. And buying a piece of software called Dragon Naturally Speaking. And I was blown away when I bought Dragon Naturally Speaking. Because Dragon Naturally Speaking allowed me to dictate into my computer and it faithfully transcribed everything. And if you didn't know it on the first, the first read, so I'd say Derriso. And it would spell Derriso, D-A-Y-R-E-S-O. And I corrected and said no, Derriso, D-A-S-R-U-I-S-S-E-A-U-X. And the next time I said Derriso, it would faithfully reproduce Derriso. That's 1998. That's 24 years ago. That technology has advanced so much now. Translators. I have a friend who recently took up a job in Curacao. Stognum over the weekend. And he said to me, boy, do anything as a lot of people speak Dutch, but you know what I do? I use my phone. So once they speak and I have my phone on and it translates everything they're saying. You don't need Babel or Rosetta Stone anymore. Your phone will do that for you. So you don't even have to learn the language. It helps if you know the language, but you don't have to. Customer service staff, retail sales people, receptionists, proof readers, except Microsoft Word hasn't gotten it right because some of the things it tries to correct me on. The taxi and bus drivers. As I said, not in St. Lucia. Manufacturing, couriers and delivery people. Deliveries are now being done by drone in some places. Probably won't happen here for a while. Those drones might not make the trip back, but that is something. Accountants. Accountants may actually be replaced by AI very, very soon. Have you interacted with a chatbot before? How many people have interacted with a chatbot? Yeah, you know what a chatbot is. You go on these websites and all of a sudden some thing asks you, can I help you? And you start coming, you start interacting with it and it's responding. That's not a real person. That's a chatbot. That's a piece of software. There'll come a point where it can't respond to you anymore and it'll refer you to a real person. But the first levels of interaction you have is with a chatbot, is with a piece of software. That has now replaced the line staff that you had to put in place. And the good thing about a chatbot is a chatbot doesn't require occupational health and safety regs. It doesn't require to be paid overtime. It works on a holiday. It works at midnight, two o'clock in the morning. That's what a chatbot does. That's what technology is making possible. In fact, just two days ago, I addressed the media rally, the International Workers Day Rally of the Trade Union Federation. And I was saying to them that these are some of the things that they need to be aware of because the world of work is changing around them. And yes, it has not yet reached the OECS but in some instances it will. Some of these things will and you will start to see this placement of some of your workers. How do you prepare for that? There have been four industrial revolutions. We had the first industrial revolution which was really the steam revolution, the revolution that steam on water propelled, then the second industrial revolution which was electricity, and then the third industrial revolution which we thought was the big one, the computing one. Well now we're in the fourth industrial revolution and this just tells you what they are. Water and steam power to mechanize production, the first one. The second industrial revolution which by the way was known as a technological revolution. Can you imagine that? The second industrial revolution that dealt with electronic electric power to create mass production was thought to be the technological revolution. Then we had the industrial, the third industrial revolution where we used electronics and information technology to automate production. So all the plants in Detroit that were producing vehicles, et cetera. Well now we are in at the start of the fourth industrial revolution where we're fusing human and artificial intelligence to create innovation that transforms and disrupts every aspect of life as we know it. That's where we are now. So we've taken the third industrial revolution and we've turbo charged it, put it on steroids, added a whole bunch of other things to it and that's where we are. And that is creating a digital economy and the digital economy is equivalent to 15.5% of global GDP. And it's actually growing at two and a half times faster than global GDP over the past 15 years. It has been shown for example that just a 10% increase in mobile broadband penetration in Africa would result in an increase of 2.5% of GDP per capita. That's significant just by making broadband access more available. Ektel's responsibility is regulation but I want to suggest that Ektel's role is bigger than regulation. You know, we live in a small society in all of our society, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis. So yes, Ektel has to function as an arms and regulator but Ektel cannot be divorced from what is happening around it. Ektel has to play a role that I believe, yes, its core function is regulation but it has to put itself in a way that it makes possible that transition to industry 4.2 or the fourth industrial revolution. And that's important because while it was difficult if not impossible for our Caribbean countries and particularly our smaller economies and the OECS to be active and significant players in the previous three industrial revolutions, there is nothing stopping us from being a major player in the fourth industrial revolution because all it requires is intelligence, human intelligence and access to technology and the facilitating environment that will allow our young people. It also requires education which I'll come to but it is possible now for us to be major players in the fourth industrial revolution. So that's why I'm saying Ektel's role is regulation but it is bigger than regulation because Ektel has to ensure that it has to push the service providers. You know, I remember at one point one of the service providers came to me and said, yeah, we want to introduce 4G in St. Lucia but we start off in castries and grusely. I said, well, why? But St. Lucia is more than castries and grusely. Well, yeah, minister. But that's what the market is. I said, no, the market is St. Lucia and you cannot tell me that you're going to introduce 4G but you're going to start in castries and grusely. I want every part of St. Lucia to have 4G, you know? And your service providers make these kinds of business decisions that are totally divorced from the economic and social realities of the country. And I think that's where both the ministry and the regulator need to push back and say, no, if you're doing this, it has to be equal access. And that's why I'm saying that Ektel has the responsibility to ensure that the infrastructure and the rules for operating and accessing the infrastructure for industry 4.0 are fair, equitable and inclusive. Technology is now allowing us to reach new markets, improve efficiency and productivity, simplify logistics, better manage our environment, improve the targeting and delivery of social services, expand educational opportunities, improve and expand access to public services, reduce the cost of doing business and create new spheres of economic opportunity. That is what technology is making possible for us. And that's why it's very important that as a regulator, you ensure that there is a level playing field and that there is nothing in place that is disadvantageing your, putting your consumers at an unfair advantage. To compete in the new digital economy, and that's now for you, minister and the governments and all the ministers who are listening online, our governments will need to develop the digital skills of our workforce and provide the environment that will allow them to take maximum advantage of the many opportunities available. It's not enough to just give children tablets. If you're putting tablets in an analog environment, those tablets are useless. We have to, we have to, we still telling our children, it was only when we started giving them tablets that we were saying to them, do not disconnect when you come to school. Many of our children, all of our children are digital natives, but we say to them when you come to school, disconnect and work and live in an analog world. We have to change that paradigm. It may seem natural to us, but it's not natural to them. And that is why we have to change the skills of the workforce, change the skills of the teachers, but change the environment in which we're operating. The growing role of technology in life and business means that all types of job require more advanced cognitive skills. That is now the challenge that our ministries of education have, to ensure that we develop those advanced cognitive skills in our children. Human capital is important because there's a high premium now on adaptability. You know, it's like, it's like Toffler said, the illiterate of the future, not those who cannot learn, who those who cannot read and write, but the those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn. If you want to be a successful citizen in this environment, that's what you have to do. You have to be, you have to be able to unlearn some of the things that you learn because they obsolete or they've been proven to be no longer the case and relearn new things. So a new social contract should also include investing in human capital to generate more opportunities for workers to find better jobs. There's an urgent need for us to bring everybody together, coming together of the minds, to design the future that we want and to determine the place that we will occupy in the global digital economy. I'm very, very optimistic and bullish about that digital economy. Because like I said, for the first time, we have an opportunity to be major players in it if we do things the right way. And we are a small population in the OECS of what, 660,000 people. It's not that difficult for us to create that environment and re-educate or educate our people so that they can take advantage of it. That has to be a focus of our governments moving forward. SDG-9 speaks about building resilient infrastructure, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialization and fostering innovation. And Target 9.C speaks very clearly that we have to provide universal access to information and communications technology. So that is something that all of our countries signed onto with the 2030 development agenda. And that is something that we should look to see how we can promote, how we can get funding to make it possible. The Caribbean Digital Transformation Project, Digital Caribbean, is a step in the right direction. I went through the things that it is seeking to do and it's building on eGrip, it's building on CASAP, and I think it's extremely important that we get the Caribbean Digital Transformation Project right. But it's only one of many things that need to be done. But at least we have a project that puts that framework and allows and provides funding to make some of these things possible. Where we are right now is that the currency of this digital economy is not dollars and euros, it's neurons. You know what a neuron is? A neuron is that thing in your brain that allows signals to go from one nerve cell to another. That is what will determine how relevant and how successful you are. Our neurons, how quickly we can adapt, how quickly we can figure things out, how we can work things out. My position is that the currency of this digital economy is not dollars, it's not euros, it's neurons. And those who make best use of the neurons will be the ones to succeed in this environment. In closing, there are a few concerns that I just want to highlight very quickly. First of all, there's this term that was developed by the trade union movement called a Just Transition. And they developed it to speak to sustainable development. That governments have to ensure that in pursuing a sustainable development pathway, they do not leave anybody behind because it's very possible to do that. So for example, Minister King's ministry, my ministry when I had the energy ministry, is pushing ahead with transitioning to a renewable energy future. So we want to stop people using fossil fuels to generate electricity. We want to get them to put solar PV panels on their rooftops. That's great. It'll do many things. It'll reduce our carbon footprint. It will eventually reduce the electricity bill. It will insulate us from the volatility in the oil market as we're seeing now with the Ukraine-Russia crisis. But guess what? A solar PV panel costs an average $40,000. Many solutions cannot afford $40,000 to put a solar PV array on their rooftops. And even worse yet, many solutions have roofs that cannot accommodate solar PV panels. So what do we do about them? Now, how do we then say to the hotels and the large manufacturers that we will allow you to put solar PV panels on and reduce your costs whilst the poor person who needs that support and that benefit more than the big hotels and the manufacturers cannot benefit? But even worse yet, as more and more of the large users of energy go off the grid or use less of that grid, the huge costs that Lucerlek is carrying then has to be transferred to whom? The people who are using the grid, the small man. So it then becomes more expensive for the small man or the small woman. So that's where just transition comes in. It means that we cannot leave anybody behind. And the same thing holds for the digital economy. We have to understand that not everybody can make that transition to a digital economy. So we have to be aware of that, that there are some people like this gentleman and his two children who are walking along the Badlal who, because of circumstances, don't have access to technology. There's an age divide. The digital divide is age-related. It's urban, rural-related. So we have to ensure that there is a just transition and that everybody gets to benefit and we understand that there must be new ones and layered approaches to bringing everybody on board. Cyber security is important. And again, I see that the new project, the digital Caribbean project deals with that. But as we move more and more services online, there is a very strong likelihood that we'll now become a target. Because you're putting things there, the hackers are seeing, hey, something, there's more activity going on in St. Lucia. What used to be a dark spot is now lighting up because there's so many more nodes and there's so much more happening. This is now a point that we have to look at. And if you're vulnerable, then you will be attacked. In some jurisdictions, I'm seeing that there is a tendency to separate the telecommunications and electronic communications function from the ICT function. I don't know how you can do that. I don't know how you could have a minister of responsibility for ICT and a minister of responsibility for telecoms and electronic communications. I do not want the minister, the current minister to respond, but that is similar to what happened when energy was split up into energy policy. And so there was a ministry of responsibility for energy policy and there was a ministry of responsibility for Lusilec and the Nuuk. Equally mad. But that is what is happening now. Fortunately, in that case, good sense prevailed and everything was put on the minister king at some point. But you cannot separate, if we do not have that right institutional framework, you make it difficult for that kind of cohesive, efficient approach to the development of the sector to take place. So that is something that certainly has to be looked at. Broadcasting needs attention. I don't know how we deal with it. If we deal with it via the Broadcasting Act or something, but we cannot allow broadcasting to continue to languish and broadcasting to do what it wants. I'm not advocating censorship, I'm advocating regulations and standards in the broadcasting sector, particularly now that so many of these broadcasters are delivering services electronically, IPTV and tune in and everything. So there must be some way in which we can overlap. And I've been told, I think in two jurisdictions, is it Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago that the regulator actually does look at content regulation. So this is something that I think we need to look at. Because this sector is so important and this is something that I would say to all ministers, commissioners and actual directors must have the requisite competence. And they also must not have any pecuniary interest in the sector, which is extremely important. And we saw that, I won't mention any names again, but we've seen where that can go. So it is vitally important that your commissioners, both at the level of the NTRC and your directors on the Hector Board have the level of competence that would allow them to do their jobs because this is a multi-million dollar industry that they're regulating and they must understand their role and ensure that they do it in a proper manner. Quality of service regulations are needed. I want to know that when I sign on for 100 megs from floor, from cable and wireless, or from digital, I get 100 megs. Don't tell me any nonsense that, oh boy, you can only get 70 megs because it's 100 megs in theory. I'm not paying you the money I'm paying you in theory. The money I'm paying you, I'm paying it to you every month for 100 megs. So do not tell me that because of congestion on the network, I'm only getting 75 or I'm only getting 80 megs. That is not right. That's like Lucid like telling me, boy, so many people on your network, we can only give you 180 volts this year, this month, we can't give you 240 volts. I don't understand that. So we must have a system in place to ensure that their quality of service regulation. So if you've paid something or you've signed up for some of the service provider, that is what they deliver to you. And now, to everybody involved in this process of the ECB, this is Karl Schwab who is the founder of the World Economic Forum. And I'll just quote everything he says because I don't think I can put it any better. He says, current systems of public policy and decision-making evolved alongside the second industrial revolution when decision-makers had time to study a specific issue and develop the necessary response or appropriate regulatory framework. The whole process was designed to be linear and mechanistic following a strict top-down approach. But such an approach is no longer feasible. Given the fourth industrial revolution's rapid pace of change and broad impacts, legislators and regulators are being challenged to an unprecedented degree. And for the most part, approving unable to cope. This means regulators must continuously adapt to a new fast-changing environment, reinventing themselves so that they can truly understand what it is they're regulating. It is not right for a sector that is moving at the pace that this one is moving to take 13 years to finalize an electronic communications bill. I'm certain that by the time that bill is passed you'll have to go and amend it because so many things have changed that the bill now is no longer fit for purpose. Pass the legislation and amend it as we go along. But this treating of electronic communications like it's some static thing, like it's a manufacturing process, it is not and our legislative drafters, our ministers, everybody, ETEL, NTRCs, everybody has to understand that we must move with a lot more alacrity, a lot more haste urgency in dealing with the legislation that will govern the sector. Now, the ETEL union is incomplete. ETEL union has five countries, somebody missing. You know like these Soka artists will tell you somebody missing, who missing? Somebody missing. I remember in 2012, 28th of March, 2012, Ember Charles and I traveled to Antigua, met with Edmund Manso, the then minister of ICT for Antigua and there was a communique that came out and that actually is what came out of the communique. Antigua will formally request observer status at the next meeting of the ETEL council, representatives of government of Antigua, Barbuda and Nectar will exchange information on policy and regulatory matters put them to the two jurisdictions. The government of Antigua and Barbuda will participate in the ongoing consultations on the draft electronic communications bill for the ETEL member states and representatives of both parties will prepare a position paper on the treatment of the OECS region as a single telecommunications space, which is not there yet, particularly in relation to roaming and the creation of new telecommunications services within the context of the economic union. That's 10 years ago. Antigua, we have to find a way to bring our brothers and sisters in Antigua, part of the fall. I know they have been attending meetings. In fact, after that meeting with Ember and I actually met with both minister Manso and with then prime minister Baldwin, Spencer. He was very keen on Antigua joining. I don't know what happened since then, but we have to find a way to complete that union. So I want to end with a personal reflection. I'm the son of a taxi driver. That's my father there. That's the original 222. That's my father in all his swag with his white wist coat. So being the son of a taxi driver, I am the taxi business paid with the exception of two scholarships along the way, paid for my entire education. The taxi business is responsible for providing the backbone for the quality of life that I enjoy. So I'm very protective of taxi drivers. So that's why when Uber and Lyft came out, I said, absolutely not. I am not taking Uber and Lyft. I'm standing in solidarity with taxi drivers all around the world, particularly my father and the people who worked for us and all the taxi drivers I grew up with. I will not take Uber and Lyft because if I do that, I'm betraying my father. Although he was dead by the time. I'm betraying my father and I will pay more money to take a taxi, but I will not take Uber and Lyft. But in after a while, reality hits. You can't get a taxi when you want it. Taxi drivers sometimes go in from A to Z to take you to B and making you pay for A to Z. Sometimes they will give you a receipt so you could retire advances. Sometimes they will not. And as soon as they drop you, they're looking at you big eye because they want to know where they tip. So I relented and I started taking Lyft because Lyft was convenient. Anywhere I was, I could hail a Lyft taxi, come to meet me. I knew exactly where it was going. I knew exactly how much of it. In fact, I paid for it in advance so there was no exchanging of money. When my trip was finished, I could decide what tip I want to pay him. If I found the service was not good, which invariably it always was good. They give you water. They give you all sorts of things. I don't know if they still do, but it was a much more pleasant experience. So I relented and I started taking Lyft. And of course Lyft had a significant disruptive effect in the market where taxis were. Many people, particularly in New York, these guys pay so much money for their medallions to drive these yellow cabs and couldn't afford them. But the other thing they found is that these Lyfts and Ubers were polluting much more than cars and taxis because they're just driving around idling waiting for a trip. So now that starts to prick my climate change conscience that I'm now contributing to the pollution of the atmosphere. Fortunately, COVID came around and Lyft and Uber started to decline because people were a little bit apprehensive about going in a vehicle with a stranger and people started going back into taxis. But you know what the taxis did? The taxis started using an app called Kub that allowed you to do the same thing that you do with Lyft and Uber. So they realized that, you know what? Technology is what is killing us. We now need to get rid of the times and embrace the technology. So that's why my parting words to you is how we respond and take advantage of the opportunities provided by technological change will determine our success. I believe we are poised to really move ahead with this digital economy. We have a very sturdy, stable, reliable, respectable regulator. We have a populist that wants to move our young people are so, so entrepreneurial. I mean, my generation was risk-averse. These kids will do anything now. They start up companies, be they NGOs or whatever, so easily. I mean, they communicate with each other. There's so many things that they're doing that my generation would not have done. My generation left school and went to look for a job. They're creating their own jobs. We have to create that opportunity for them so that they can take advantage of those spaces that the digital economy is providing. Madam Chair, thank you very much. That was such an eye-opening and insightful presentation. Thank you so much, Dr. Fletcher. You've issued us with a challenge and I'm sure Ektel and all stakeholders are going to take you upon that. Right, Ms. Wanton? Right. All right, so I'm going to hand over now to my colleague Ms. Salyan Kota. She's Ektel's general counsel. We'll have a short Q&A session from persons who would have been watching on social media as well as those in the room. Just if you have any burning questions, Ms. Kota will moderate that session. Thank you. So Dr. Fletcher, you could stand by in case. Thank you. Thank you. I will adopt the protocol list already established. Our Secretariat has been manning the questions on the social media platforms and we have two questions. If any of the audience wish to ask a question, there is a notepad at the back of the room, please, as there is only this mic on my shirt. I have one question, Dr. Fletcher, and it comes from Mr. Jerry George, who is a commissioner on the NTRC St. Lucia and his question is, any concerns that the proliferation of artificial intelligence, big tech and mega-ICT platforms could potentially usher in a new form of tech colonialism and a net outflow of revenue and skills talent. How can developing countries protect or insulate themselves from such risks? It's an excellent question and trust Jerry to ask it. Yeah, again, it speaks to us needing to ensure that this is a two-way street because up until now technology has been a one-way street. We have not understood the importance of generating our own content, of putting content out there. All we're doing is consuming the content that is there and that's why we are not using the technology and the infrastructure that has been made available to us properly and that's where education is coming in. That's where education must come in so that we understand that we should not just be consumers and take us on that, you know we used to be called the information super highway before, I don't know what they call it now anymore, but that we have to be putting our own vehicles in letting other people get into our vehicles and paying us to ride in those vehicles. There's so much rich content that can come out of the Caribbean. I'll give you one simple example. As you can see, whenever I do PowerPoint slides I use a lot of graphics but it's always difficult for me to get culturally appropriate graphics. So every now and again you'll see a graphic with a person of ethnicity that is not mine because that's the best I can guess. You'll see a white person. That's the best I can get. I can't get a Caribbean person in a Caribbean location to put in my PowerPoint graphics and I've been saying for the longest while we have a lot of really good photographers in this region. But now we have people with phones that are just snapping pictures all over the place. Why can't we create a deposit photos or shut the stalk or whatever for the Caribbean? And our people upload their pictures on there and they get a royalty every time. I can tell you, I would be one of the biggest subscribers to that site because I always want, and there are people who want content. So the issue is, I'm giving Jerry a very simplistic response but it's for us to understand that we should not just be the takers on, I use Fiverr. How many of you know Fiverr? Fiverr is a website that you can go on and it has content creators from all around the world. And if you want flyer produced, you want a newsletter done. You could get someone to do it for you in 24 hours, 48 hours. It'll cost you sometimes $50, cost you $100. You could actually get someone on Fiverr to manage your business and administrative assistant who will manage your business for you. If you have an event, you could hire like an online event. You could hire an event planner on Fiverr. You want a website done? You could do it on Fiverr. I'm not seeing anybody from the Caribbean on Fiverr. I see people from Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Europe. I'm not seeing Caribbean people on Fiverr. There are opportunities for us to market our, that's why I'm saying that this gives us an opportunity to reach a much wider market. We're not using it. Even our soca and then resegment artists, I say all the time, the only place I can get your music is on YouTube. But I'm not paying when I go on YouTube and I download your music. I should be able to go onto a side beat, iTunes or something. And buy the last song by Umpah for $1.29. Or, well, Moto is actually good because Moto does a lot of collaboration, so he's there. But some of these other guys, they actually tell you, parrot my music if you want to use it. That's so, the simplistic response to Jerry is that we have to create a lot more content of our own. We have to create the businesses. There's no reason a group of Caribbean people cannot come together and produce the next ways. I remember the guy who was chief operating officer of OMAT. OMAT is the company that would have done the geothermal development for us. Ariel Sassadotti. Ariel is Israeli. And I'm not having a chat with Ariel when I was minister of responsible energy. He said to me, Jimmy, you know, there's an opportunity that I miss and I kick myself every day. Couple of young guys came to me and they said to me that they have this idea for an app that what this app does is that it collects digital crumbs of wherever you go in your vehicle and it creates a map of that will allow you to predict what the traffic is like. So for example, if I'm driving from this point to my home in the North and it should normally take me 20 minutes to do that, but because there's so much traffic on the way, you could see that my movement is extremely slow. It plots that and it plots that for everybody. So it kind of creates a digital map of how traffic is moving between castries and grocery. So when you go on to waste, it will not tell you where Jimmy is, but it will tell you all the vehicles that are on that road, how quickly or how slowly they're moving. So it'll allow you to predict where there's traffic congestion and it will tell you how much time it will take you to get to your destination. He said to me, the guys who develop waste came to him and they wanted him to invest in it. He said that, no man, that's madness. Who will go for that? Waste ended up being a multi-billion dollar company. And these are just two guys from Israel who put this together. I could be two guys from Balka. I could be a guy from Boutou and a guy from Asoukanal. We have that talent. It could be a guy from Guav and a guy from Kingston. We have that talent here in the Caribbean, but we have to get our people to understand that they have to expand the horizons. I was having a conversation just this morning with someone and he was saying to me, yeah, you know, how many of these people can we develop? I said, we should not say that, you know, this is like engineering. You could only have five engineers. You could have as many app developers as you want because as opposed to an OBGYN who has a market of only the women in St. Lucia, an app developer has a global market. He or she can market their service to everybody in the world. So there's no limit on how many you should produce. And just think of one of these apps getting going big. One us producing one ways, one WhatsApp, and what that will do for the economy of this country. That, you know, so one unicorn, one unicorn app. Those are some of the things that we should be putting our money behind. So the answer to Jerry's question is I think we have to go aggressively to make sure that it's not a one-way street, that people don't just come in and mine everything and take away the advantage that we have. Yeah. Okay, thank you, Dr. Pleasure. We have a question from the director of telecoms in Dominica, Mr. Bennett Thomas. He says, your comments on ECTEL being more than a regulator are well taken. Should ECTEL begin to look at the role of data protection and cybersecurity matters, particularly as we see the digital transformation of economies? I think ECTEL has to be very mindful of what happens there. I think there's a role certainly for ECTEL. There's also a role for the government there, but I think ECTEL has to be mindful of that because, again, we live in small countries. ECTEL cannot see itself as just a regulator and nothing else. It should never put itself in a position to dilute its core responsibility. Its responsibility is regulation and it should never dilute its or spread itself so thin that it cannot fulfill its core responsibility. But there are certain places where if nobody's doing it and you have the expertise that resides within ECTEL, then certainly, I think that that is something that ECTEL should keep a watching brief one and certainly work with the government so that that robust institutional architecture can be put in place to ensure that we have some level of cyber protection because it will become increasingly a problem as we migrate more and more services online, as more people put their businesses online. And we still have very gullible setup people there. First person will tell you, if you send $150, I'll give you this. Hey, Gasser, yeah, man. And did you ever apply for the lottery? How did you win the lottery? So, yeah, we have to find a way, want to educate our people so that they can recognize these scammers and these phishers, these phishing attacks when they take place. So education is extremely important. But I think, yes, ECTEL must keep a watching brief so that it can at least seed that institutional mechanism that is required. Okay, thank you. I have a question from Mr. Sylvester Cluzel, my former Permanent Secretary of St. Lucia, and your PS. He asks, what are the low-hanging fruit which the education system could grasp to make itself more relevant to the emerging ICT opportunities? I would say to Sylvester that I believe the education system is in need of more than just grasping at low-hanging fruit right now. I think the education system is in need of a complete rethinking of the way in which it operates. I think the education system has to understand that for large groups of Caribbean people, we're failing them. It cannot be okay for a child to spend five years in a secondary school. And 20% of those children come out of zero subjects after spending five years in a secondary school. There's something wrong there. There's something wrong with the education system that allows that to happen year after year after year and there's nothing about it, knowing that we are consigning these children to a future that is not a good one. There has to be something wrong with an education system that says that a child who's called 14% in a common entrance exam can be graduated to a secondary school and then sent from one form to another and not understand that there's a particular inevitability of the life of that child as a result of doing that. So while I appreciate Sylvester's question, but I guess I've come to the point at this stage, I view this right, where I'm kind of tired of the low-hanging fruit discussion as an excuse for not doing what needs to be done. I think we need to start doing what needs to be done in all of these sectors. And I honestly believe that there is a serious rethinking of our education system that has to take place. You continue to have the same laments every time and the education system works really well for those it works for. So you see the elite in our society, you see those who are bright, you're those who we call bright, they will sell through the education system, but there are too many who's slipping through the cracks. And these children have skills in other areas and we're not giving them an opportunity. If I had to be judged when I was nine years old, I start common entrance when I was nine years old. Luckily back then they allowed you to sit common entrance at an early age. If I had to be judged at nine years old, for my ability to put together a simple cabinet, I would never pass secondary school, never. Because I just did not have those skills. I probably still don't. There's certain things that you know you're good at and there's certain things that you're not good at. The education system judges you on your ability to do one thing. And I think that is what is wrong with it. Particularly in this new digital economy where there's certain things that are premium now, communicating, networking, these are things that we don't assess for. Now I'm hoping that with some of the changes that are taking place, for example, the abolition of common entrance and now a more holistic learning experience that that will eventually come. But to be honest, Salian, I don't like the low-hanging fruit argument anyway. I don't like it for energy, I don't like it for climate change. The incrementalism, the gradualism, I find is an excuse for us to not do what needs to be done. And I love the patience for it. All right, we have just two more questions. So this one is my question. With your unique experience having served as permanent secretary in Ministry of Agriculture, Cabinet SEC, Senator and Minister of Government, which you chronicled in your book that was mentioned, governing a small Caribbean island state. Two questions. In your opinion, what do you think are the challenges for any city government in relation to legislative reform? And when I say reform, it's just not the bill. So for example, for ECTEL, we're passing the bill, but a suite of regulations as you had tried to do with the energy sector. So what are the challenges and then what are the recommendations? I think one obvious challenge is the paucity of resources in the legislative drafting units in our respective countries. I was very happy to hear Prime Minister Philip J.P., Honorable Philip J.P. has said that he intends to address that because year after year, we'll amend the fact that we have insufficient capacity in our legislative drafting unit. Good drafters are hard to find, drafters are hard to find. We've gone far and wide. We've seen whether we could get from Comsec. So your legislative agenda, I can tell you, we pushed hard to get that broadcasting bill passed, but the AG just said to me, Jimmy, I don't have the staff and I don't have the time and PM wants me to pass other pieces of legislation. So sorry, yours is very low on my totem pole. So I think that is the first thing we have to address. We have to deal with the insufficiency of resources in our legislative drafting units in all of our Caribbean countries. Well, at least those I know about. Secondly, we have to find a way to engage with people much more effectively than we're doing right now. The consultative process just takes too much time. So you have a consultation and then you come back and then it takes you three months to collate the things of the consultation. And then it takes you another couple of months or three months to have a meeting of your directors or your counsel for you to review the things of the consultation. Then you go back to the legislative drafting post and you say, okay, sometimes a whole year passes just in that you have not had one more consultation. And again, with technology being what it is, these things should be expedited. We should not be, there shouldn't be such a long waiting period for consultation. Sometimes by the time you get back to the people, they forgot what they told you in the first consultation. It takes so much time. So I think, Salian, those are my two recommendations. One, strengthening your legislative drafting departments. If you cannot do it now, at least think long term. Say to your lawyers, we have a serious, and it's not just in St. Lucia. You have a shortage of legislative drafters or anything with legislative drafters, they make good money. They do, they pay it, they do well because they're in high demand. So demand our strip supply and when you get good ones, you really have to pay them for their work. And sometimes they have four or five assignments doing. So orient some of your young lawyers and tell them go and do legislative drafting. I don't know how easy it is to do legislative drafting. I don't know whether, maybe for some people because I figure legislative drafting is a tedious thing. You have to be finicky, it's boring, but it pays well. So hey, what do you want to do? You want to be exciting and you get paid, you get a case every three months, or you want to do boring and you get paid, you have people approaching you left, right and center for works. I know which one I would choose. I can find other ways to get excitement. I'd have to get excitement like, whoa. Thank you. And the last question is from our former managing director. And when you're answering Dr. Fletcher, you need to look directly at Minister King. That's from who, Amber Charles? Yes. Please. So, no, I added that part. So his question is, having served as minister of telecommunications for five years, you've served also as our council member. You were also involved in the process of the EC bill. What advice can you give to Minister King to ensure that he does not come to us after his five years to sing a similar song of sorrow? So you need to look at him and tell him, please. Steve, pass the bill. No, Joe, what more can you ask for? Minister King, senior minister and minister of et cetera, as promised in the first quarter, the EC bill will be passed. So I know Minister King, we've known each other for a long time. He's a man of his words. So, Mr. Charles, you have the assurance of Minister King that the bill will be passed. And he will not come to you, as I have done, six years after the meeting of his singing a sad song. Who sang that song? UB40, some of the singers are. Yeah, he won't come under that. Thank you, UB40. UB40, yeah. Yeah, thank you. Thanks so much, Salianne, for moderating that session. Thank you for the responses, Dr. Fetcher, and for all the questions from the audience. Thank you so much. So to wrap things up, I'm going to call on actors, my acting managing director, Ms. Cheryl Hector-Fontanel, to deliver the vote of thanks. Ms. Fontanel. Thank you, Madam moderator. People normally complain about having to speak after exciting speakers, and I think this time it's probably worse. Chairman of the Actile Council of Ministers, Senior Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Ports, Transport, Physical Development and Urban Renewal, Hon. Ruth Stevenson King, other members of the Actile Council of Ministers, Chairman of the Actile Board of Directors, Mr. Dwayne Noel, and other members of the board, Director General of the OECS, Mr. Delicas Jules, our most distinguished speaker, Dr. James Fletcher, Managing Director of Solaricon, as well as the former Chairman of the Actile Council of Ministers, former managing directors, Mr. Ember Charles and Mr. Andrew Millet, participating online, the staff of ECTAIL, the NTRCs, our partner regional and international organizations, representatives of government ministries, all persons who have joined us in studio, on Zoom and on other social media. Welcome and thank you. I think I call this a total force. It was, I was riveted from starting, I mean, I think the point that Dr. Fletcher made that we don't tell our own history. And 22 years later, we have a lot of history to tell. And it, to me, this was a brilliant inaugural lecture. I think we picked very, very well. Thank you very much, Dr. Fletcher. And it really is with our heartfelt gratitude that we are happy that you accepted the invitation and that you were able to deliver the lecture today. Since assuming office, the current Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Honourable Stevenson King, has embraced the need for urgent changes. He has indicated he has given his commitments to pass in the ECBIL. And this evening, again, by your presence here, sir, you have continued to demonstrate your commitments to the process. And we thank you for your presence and for your very insightful remarks. But as usual, we cannot do anything with our people. And a number of persons helped us to make this a meaningful and successful endeavour. As always, we want to recognize the members of Council as well as our Board of Directors, our partners, commissioners, and staff of the NTRCs, partner agencies, including the OECS, the ECCB, permanent secretaries of government ministries, the legislative drafters, an excellent partner because without them we couldn't get to this point with the ECBIL, fellow regulators, service providers, our former managing directors who have joined us today. For all of you, we want to thank you for your attendance and your participation in this meeting today. The team at the GIS, excellent, excellent at hosting, very graciously did all the work we just had to show up, even assisted us with where to put what, we were hopelessly unskilled in that area. And we want to thank them for their continued support because this is not the first time that they have supported the endeavour of ECTEL. Last but not least, or not last actually, the staff of the directorates. We all know having planned events that it really takes a lot more than you think, no matter how much time you think you need, you need more time. And I am very happy and immensely grateful for the team of ECTEL for taking on this task with all of its challenges up to the last minute and getting us to this point. We know that everybody at ECTEL assisted, but I would like to recognize Ms. Coretta Crooks-Charles who expertly moderated this event, our general counsel, Sally-Ann Cotter, excellent with the Q&A, very brilliant management of that process. We also have Ms. Pearl Lake, Ms. Janelle Gustin-Henry diligently working in the back, and we also have a team of persons who are looking at the social media engagement and they are seated at the back of the room also. I want to thank you for your continued commitment to the work of ECTEL, and please note that your service never goes unnoticed. The media, including the GIS of the other member states, as well as UETV who have agreed to participate by sharing this live stream on their platforms, we thank you for your continued support. Before we leave, I think we would like to offer you a token of our deepest appreciation and I will ask our Director of Technical Services, Mr. Lawrence Nervey, to make that presentation. Oops, sorry. Thank you, Lawrence. I'm sure it's not photo of me and my life. I don't know whether you could work, Lawrence, but it's not a photo of the one that's lying. Thank you. Okay, and with that, I will say thank you to everybody, and thank you for joining us as we celebrate the 22nd anniversary of ECTEL's founding. Thank you very much. Okay, thank you, Ms. Fontanelle. So while a 22nd anniversary may not be regarded as momentous as a 20th or 25th anniversary, if it's one lesson we learned from the pandemic, it's to be grateful in that we are. We are thankful that despite all the recent challenges and hurdles, we have been able to ensure accessible and reasonable electronic communication services to the people of our five member states and as emphasized by Dr. Fletcher, we will continue to work with all stakeholders to ensure the promulgation and the effective implementation of the EC bill as we move towards digital transformation in our member states. Again, to all our in-studio guests, as well as those who joined us via the Zoom room and on social media, thanks for making ECTEL's 22nd anniversary meaningful and memorable. And if you aren't already following us, that's a plug, on social media, please do so, so you could keep abreast of our work and our upcoming initiatives on Facebook and YouTube. You could find us at ECTEL, that's at E-C-T-E-L. And on Instagram and Twitter, search for ECTEL authority. So I'm your host, Karacha Crook-Strauss, ECTEL's communications and media relations manager. Until next time, do keep safe and take care.