August 4th, 2015

Secretary-general elect Shola Taylor meets with members of the Caribbean region ahead of official term of office

LONDON, 4 AUGUST 2015 – Shola Taylor, the CTO’s secretary-general elect, has met with officials of member countries in the Caribbean region during 31st Annual Conference and Trade Exhibition of the Caribbean Association of National Telecommunications Operators (CANTO) held on 26 – 31 July 2015 in Miami, USA.

“My participation at this event therefore affords me a unique opportunity to interact with the principal stakeholders in the Caribbean region to review some of the current programmes of the CTO such as Broadband, Cybersecurity and Cybercrime, the Programme for Development and Training as well as other policy and regulatory initiatives.

“I am optimistic that through you, I will have the necessary inputs to drive my agenda for ICT development for this region within the scope of a new strategic plan for the CTO. I am pleased to see that CANTO is already addressing many of these issues and I look forward to a real engagement with you for the overall benefit of this region.” Mr Taylor said in his opening address.

Mr Taylor was appointed secretary-general of the CTO on 16 June 2015, and will take over officially on 17 September 2015. He particularly praised the organisers of the Miami event for the focus on broadband.

“Broadband is becoming more of significance because despite the enormous progress made during the past years, and the variety of broadband technologies available, the challenge of affordable and universal access to broadband is still staring us in the face. The Internet of Things is predicted to connect over 50 billion devices by 2020 generating huge amounts of data that will be transmitted, using both advanced terrestrial and satellite technologies. I am pleased to note that broadband is a priority for CANTO. It is therefore appropriate that your conference focuses on this issue and in this respect, I applaud the organisers for creating this platform of open dialogue”, Mr Taylor expressed to members’ of CANTO’s secretariat.