Monday commences a first for Montserrat as the launch of their National ICT Strategy, its first National ICT Day when the Honourable Premier Reuben T. Meade delivered the laptops for students programme.

In January of 2010, Premier Meade agreed to be Montserrat’s champion for Information and Communication Technologies known most commonly as ICTs. In April that year, Montserrat hosted the ICT Roadshow in collaboration with the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU).

CTU was later contracted through the Ministry of Communications & Works to develop the government’s five-year National ICT Policy, Strategy and Implementation Plan. The plan articulates a vision, policies, strategies, programmes and projects for short to medium term, ICT-enabled national development.

On the heels of the Cabinet approving the new plan in June 2012, Monday, September 17 was selected as National ICT Day, and is intended to raise public awareness of the importance of ICTs, to highlight the concepts of the National ICT Plan and to engage local stakeholders as well as potential development and supplier partners to become involved in implementation of the plan.

Green, Connected,Thriving: Montserrat in a Digital World is the theme of the ICT Plan and ICT Day. Attendees learned about the eLava concept of Environment, Learning, Access, Virtual Adoption which is a timeline and strategy of programmes which the government rolled out to advance the island’s education and economy with increased connectivity to the rest of the world.