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The Montserrat Edition of the ECCB’s 40th Anniversary Lecture Series: The Promise of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) - Yellow Economy
The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank’s highly acclaimed Lecture Series in celebration of its 40th Anniversary moves to Montserrat on Thursday, 22 June, 2023, starting 6:00p.m. at the Cultural Centre on Robert W. Griffith Drive in Little Bay.
The theme, The Promise of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) - Yellow Economy, will be explored by the distinguished panel consisting of Montserrat’s Deputy Premier and Minister of Communication, Works, Energy and Labour, Dr. Hon. Samuel Joseph, BSc (Hons), MSc, PhD and Director of the Department of Information Technology and E-Government Services, Mr. Denzil West, BSc, MSc. Moderating the night’s lecture will be Ms. Nerissa Golden, a well-known media strategist and author.
The esteemed panelists will discuss opportunities for leveraging ICT in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They will also give insight on the Government of Montserrat’s efforts to future-proof the internet access infrastructure and make high-speed broadband capacity available to every home and business on the island.
The ECCB’s 40th Anniversary Lecture Series is being held under the theme The Colourful Economy and will culminate with the ECCB@40 Global Conference taking place at the ECCB Headquarters from 8-10 November, 2023.
The Colourful Economy and its intersection with sustainable development have provided stimulating discussions during the successful staging on 31 May, 20 April, 23 March and 28 February, 2023 of the Grenada Edition (Blue, Orange and Green Economies), the Saint Lucia Edition (Green and Purple Economies), the Antigua and Barbuda Edition (Silver Economy) and the Anguilla Edition (Blue and Green Economies), respectively.
The Montserrat Edition on 22 June continues in this tradition by shining a light on ICT, which is an important catalyst for sustainable development.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) accelerates human progress by enabling billions of people around the world to access empowering, life-changing information and services, such as digital wallets, e-commerce, educational resources, e-government, healthcare, mobile banking and social media. For instance, ICTs help farmers boost crop yields and productivity, thereby improving food security and fighting hunger.
Indeed, digital financial services, mobile learning and energy-efficient, ICT-enabled solutions are raising living standards and having wide-ranging impacts in just about every sphere of ordinary life and industry, as more and more people across socio-economic and geographic spectrums participate in the digital economy.
The lecture is for everyone – from ICT experts and practitioners, internet service providers, policy makers, to producers and consumers of ICTs, and anyone with an interest in expanding the digital economy in the countries of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union.
For a full listing of the lecture series events, please click here to view the ECCB@40 Calendar, which outlines the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank’s 40th Anniversary Celebrations.
Click here to view the Anguilla Edition of the ECCB’s 40th Anniversary Lecture Series. Click here to view the Antigua and Barbuda Edition. Click here to view the Saint Lucia Edition. Click here to view the Grenada Edition.
Speakers
 | Educated at the University of the West Indies (UWI) and Baylor University in Texas, Dr. Joseph holds a PhD in Physics (2009), a Master’s in Computational Physics (2001) and first class honours in Mathematics (1999). He was one of the 10 students accepted into the High Energy Physics Postgraduate Diploma programme (2001) at the prestigious ICTP institution in Trieste, Italy. Dr. Joseph returned to Montserrat in 2010 as an educator at the Montserrat Secondary School (MSS) and the Montserrat Community College (MCC). Believing that Montserratians could leverage their ICT skills to draw business from the global community, Dr. Joseph, along with his brother Dr. Daniel Joseph and Manish Valechha, established Montserrat's first software company, Lavabits. Lavabits has produced various apps and software currently in use by the Government of Montserrat and the Financial Services Commission. Montserrat is now part of a global world connected through technology. Its future depends on its ability to exploit its geothermal energy and Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), as well as motivate and make use of its young people and human capital. These are all issues Dr. Joseph has invested his energies and experience towards with tremendous success. Dr. Joseph is also a member of Parliament, having been elected in 2017. He is now Deputy Premier and the Minister of Communication, Works, Energy and Labour. |
 | After graduating from the Montserrat Secondary School, Denzil West successfully completed undergraduate studies at the Barbados Community College in Barbados and at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, USA. He later completed postgraduate studies at Sheffield Hallam University in Sheffield, UK. In addition to his multinational tertiary education, Denzil has attended numerous Information Technology training courses all across the world, from Canada to Ireland, to Singapore and South Korea, to name a few. Having amassed quite a considerable wealth of international exposure, Denzil is uniquely qualified to advise on the development of ICTs in the region and in Montserrat, his home country. Since his return to Montserrat from his international studies in 2001, Denzil has been the de facto Chief Information Officer and main ICT advisor for the Government of Montserrat. Over the past 20 years, he has managed the implementation and rollout of numerous departmental and government-wide IT applications. During this time, Denzil was responsible for the establishment of a robust fibre optic Wide Area Network, which connects all government departments across the island to a centralised data centre. During the rollout of the G-WAN, Denzil pushed for the Government of Montserrat to obtain its own block of IP addresses from the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) and bypass the local telecommunications providers for this resource. This was a first for the Caribbean at the time. Starting in 2019, Denzil was the lead Project Manager on the major project to reconnect Montserrat to the international subsea fibre network. Apart from enabling the local telcos to use the new submarine fibre, the successful completion of the subsea fibre project now positions the Government of Montserrat’s IT department as an internet service provider (ISP) in its own right. This means that the Government of Montserrat does not rely on the local telcos for its Gigabit IP Transit routes to Miami and New York. Now that the enabling physical IT infrastructure is in place, Denzil is now refocusing his energies on the development and rollout of a comprehensive suite of customer-facing online government applications tailored for the local and diaspora citizens and businesses of Montserrat. |
Moderator
 | Nerissa is a media and business strategist who helps her clients tell their stories. An Amazon bestselling multi-genre author, Nerissa believes that everyone’s unique journey is the foundation on which a legacy can be built. Her books include Start, Grow, Thrive: Build a Business to Last and Ordained for This: Living Fulfilled, at Peace, Provided for and on Purpose. The mother of “four of the best humans on the planet,” she says “we can all create the life we want, with imagination, intention and words.” She is the CEO of Goldenmedia LLC, which manages digital lifestyle, education and news brands, including Discover Montserrat, Truly Caribbean and Emerald Vibes TV. A journalist since the age of 17, Nerissa finds stories in every conversation and works to spread narratives that position Caribbean people in the best and brightest lights. Her new service, The Visibility Project, teaches high-performance women to go from invisible to being a sought-after industry leader without compromising values and authenticity. |
