THE Central Information Technology Office (CITO) of the Ministry of Commerce, Science and Technology yesterday launched its 2006 Regional ICT Summit, scheduled to take place in Kingston from May 9 to 11.

The three-day summit, which forms part of an awareness campaign by CITO, will be held at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel under the theme “Disaster Preparedness and Recovery: Utilising Information and Communications Technology”.

It will target business leaders in Jamaica and the region by providing them with preparedness strategies and advice on recovery in times of national disasters, through the use of information and communications technology (ICT).

“All of the successful economies of the world have used ICT for their development and it appears to us that that is what we also need to do in preparing for disasters,” said Michael duQuesnay, chief executive officer of CITO.

“The place is no longer as safe as it used to be, due to the frequency of hurricanes, earthquakes and other disasters, so we need to educate leaders in the public and private sectors about how to recover in times of national disasters, and IT has become one of the key ways to help in the recovery process,” he said.

CITO board member Mervyn Eyre told the Observer that the summit was primarily targeted at government officials, executives and project managers because disaster management is essentially viewed as a leadership responsibility.

The summit is endorsed and sponsored by the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), the Jamaica Computer Society, Digicel, Fujitsu and Anbell Communications.

“We cannot prevent hurricanes from coming to our territorial waters so we have to put measures in place to help in the recovery process and to minimise the devastating consequences,” said Nadine Newsome, who represented ODPEM Director-General Barbara Carby at the launch.

Summit participants will be addressed by local and international experts in disaster management, and those unable to attend can sign up with CITO for video-streaming service.

CITO is a limited liability company set up by Cabinet in May 2001 to assist the government to continuously improve public sector services for the betterment of the country.

– reidt@jamaicaobserver.com