Minister of Energy, Mining and Telecommunications, Clive Mullings (2nd left), along with Mayor of Montego Bay, Charles Sinclair (right), and Executive Director of the HEART Trust/NTA, Donald Foster (2nd right), listen as manager of the Stony Hill HEART Academy, Muffat Joyce Townsend outlines the offering of the IT training around the island.

Minister of Energy, Mining and Telecommunications, Clive Mullings, says government will soon be rolling out an expanded programme of community Internet access points across the island, to increase access to computers for Jamaicans.

Minister Mullings, who was speaking at the Caribbean Institute of Technology (CIT) Information and Communication Technology Awareness Week in Montego Bay on February 8, said all 60 members of parliament have been asked to identify strategic areas in their constituencies, where a sum of five computers will be placed.

"Access to computers remains an issue for many persons in our country as we strive for 100 per cent access to telecommunications services," he said.

He said the ministry would set up community access points across the island with the help of the International Development Bank (IDB) and would be expanding this programme shortly.

"All 60 constituencies will benefit," he said, reiterating government's commitment to the progress of information technology, citing the legislature facilitating E-Commerce transaction, allowing ease and legality of business transactions online, as well as the Cyber Crimes Act, to prevent and prosecute Internet- related crimes.

"We have to treat with even greater urgency the protection of our people," the Minister explained to a full audience of students and IT representatives, who turned out at the Montego Bay Civic Centre.

Already he said several government agencies had taken the lead in facilitating E-Commerce, including the Customs Department, the Inland Revenue Department, the National Land Agency, the Trade Board and the Office of the Registrar of Companies.
He said Jamaica was strategically poised for economic growth through technology, which could take the country from a developing nation to first world status.

"CIT represents the future for this country and this region," he said. "It's an opportunity to improve all of our people."

He said the organisation, which was established in 1998 in Montego Bay, has since trained some 4,000 graduates in software design and development as well as computer programming and networking, who have been placed in some 60 companies across Jamaica.