—at Greater Houston Partnership Outreach
During a presentation to the Greater Houston Partnership Outreach last Tuesday, Minister of Public Telecommunications Cathy Hughes said there is room for a third mobile service provider.
The outreach was hosted by the Greater Houston Partnership in collaboration with the Government of Guyana and sponsors Chevron, TOTALTEC Oilfield Services and the Relocating to Guyana Group. Also in attendance were Ministers David Patterson and Dominic Gaskin, as well as Chief Executive Officer of GO-Invest, Owen Verwey.
The Public Telecommunications minister, in her speech, noted that the ministry is in the final stages of its negotiations with their existing exclusive Telecoms licensee for release of exclusivity. She said that the one objective driving the process is “having an open market that is competitive in service and price”.
She had noted that government is interested in licensing at least one additional operator of its own submarine cable “to provide physical redundancy and additional commercial options for international connectivity”, increasing the investment potential for not only Guyana, but for the Caribbean and South America. She added that the country’s geography makes it an ideal location for Data Centres. The minister also noted that if the local “ICT eco-system” is to thrive in the oil and gas economy, all legislation must be updated to include ICTs. “While we aggressively pursue full liberalization of the telecommunications sector, 2019 will see the tabling of a number of Bills including the Electronic Communications and Transactions Bill, the Cyber Security Bill and an updated Intellectual Property Protection Bill,” she related.
The Minister highlighted the agency’s accomplishments since its conception in 2015, which include the development of over 170 ICT hubs in local communities. She also noted upcoming plans, including the launch of 200 online services by next year. Hughes stated that they have already designed a broad-spectrum software with portals to those public services, including for passport and business compliance applications and pension payments.
Furthermore, she related to the forum that the agency has revised the Intellectual Property and Data Protection legislation and has been collaborating with the Ministry of Business to introduce e-commerce activities locally.
Adverting to Business Process Outsourcing, Hughes said that there are currently 10 call centres here employing approximately 4,000 persons, primarily youths and females and this number is expected to grow significantly.
“Typically, employees of these companies have no prior experience in the field so they must go through onthe-job training. This attests to the high level of trainability of the workforce”, she asserted.