Bermuda Wins ICT Industry Development Award

The World Information Technology Services Alliance (WITSA) has presented the Government of Bermuda with a special ICT Industry Development Award, at the WITSA World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT 2010) in Amsterdam, held from May 25-27th.

The award recognizes efforts to encourage the development of the global ICT industry and in this case it was given to the Government of Bermuda for organizing a workshop (jointly sponsored with the World Bank) for delegates from the Latin American, Caribbean and South American region, on the means of strengthening the ICT industry through the formation of incubators and associations.

The workshop was held prior to the WITSA Global Public Policy Summit (GPPS) at the Fairmont Southampton in Bermuda in 2009. The intention of this pre-conference was to enable several emerging countries in that region that would not otherwise have been able to do so, to participate in meaningful sessions on growing and maturing ICT industries, allow the participants to network with their global peers, and benefit from the WITSA GPPS 2009.

In the WITSA 2009 Annual Report, Secretary General Dr. James H. Poisant commented on the Public Policy Summit held in Bermuda, saying: “ WITSA is extremely proud that its member, the Bermuda Chamber of Commerce working in collaboration with the Bermudian Government, succeeded in hosting the best-ever Global Public Policy Summit in WITSA’s history. The program content, speakers, venue and operations were world class. Thank you Bermuda!”

Minister of Energy, Telecommunications and E-Commerce, the Hon. Michael Scott said: “I was thrilled and proud to hear that the team in the Department of E-Commerce was recognized by this key global ICT Association leader for their hard work in conceiving and staging this important pre-conference. We feel Bermuda has much to offer in helping other countries develop their ICT infrastructure and look forward to having a fruitful working relationship with our partners across the world.”

The World Information Technology Services Association Global Public Policy Summit 2009 was held at the Fairmont Southampton from the 1st to the 3rd of November. The Summit brought together the main representative bodies for the Global ICT industry – an industry worth billions of dollars – with Government policymakers from across the Globe.

The sessions at the event were wide-ranging, covering topics such as the future of Internet governance, to the use of ICT policy as a driver of economic growth. The latter was clearly of considerable interest given the current economic downturn.

The event was a considerable success with 183 delegates attending representing over 40 countries, from as far afield as Kenya, South Africa, Lebanon, Egypt, New Zealand, Japan, the EU, Malaysia, Argentina, and St. Lucia, most of whom had never been to Bermuda before. Many delegates and speakers represented leading international organizations including the World Bank, WTO, ICANN, ITU, IGF and the OECD.

The Chairman of WITSA, Dan E Khoo, also congratulated Bermuda on receiving the ICT Industry Development Award and emphasized the successful legacy of the Bermuda Global Public Policy Conference. “The quality of the deliberations also culminated in the Bermuda Declaration, which is an important document paving the way towards a future of prosperity with ICT,” he said.

Mr. Khoo also referenced the Bermuda Declaration as being a precursor to the development of the Declaration of Amsterdam, adopted at the closing ceremonies of WCIT2010.

Accepting the award in Amsterdam on behalf of Minister Scott was Director of E-Commerce Nancy Volesky.

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