WESTERN BUREAU:
BRITISH HIGH Commissioner Judith Slater says that in order for Jamaica to develop sustainable cities, it must prioritise training its population in the application of information technology in various sectors.
Slater made the recommendation during her keynote address at Wednesday’s opening session of the Caribbean Sustainable Cities Conference’s second biennial staging in Montego Bay, St James.
“One challenge I would point out to leaders in this region is how to ensure that people are trained up for a sustainable smart region. New skill sets will be required, so you would have mechanics who can fix electric vehicles and architects who can design energy-efficient buildings,” she told the conference.
“Jamaica will need lots of information technology skills to deliver and use public services, and you will need regulations and standards you may never have bothered about before. The pandemic forced some of that upon us, but there is a deliberate path which must be taken towards using technology to improve educational, health, social, and economic outcomes,” she added.
Slater also suggested that cities in the Caribbean could benefit from exchanging development ideas with each other, while listing several European countries which have already done so.
“Through building stronger bilateral links, city to city, councils are able to collaborate and learn from each other’s experiences. Cities from Denmark, the United Kingdom, Spain, Sweden and Slovakia have collaborated across a range of areas, and we would see topics such as energy efficiency, buildings, common ticketing systems, e-mobility in transport, data management and the data-driven economy, smart grids, smart electricity, renewable energy, and the circular economy,” said Slater.
The circular economy refers to a production and consumption model of recycling existing materials as long as possible.
“Is this something the Caribbean could learn from? Could Bridgetown and Kingston share best practices on wind farms? Are there lessons that Dominica and Guyana could share on the circular economy? Jobs could be created, and businesses could grow,” the British high commissioner added.
The importance of embracing technology was endorsed by Donna Howe, managing director of Jamaica Bauxite Mining Limited, who stressed that even rural communities will have to accept technological advancement for the sake of their own development.
“There is a symbiotic relationship between rural and urban development. We have to embrace technology, especially in rural areas,” Howe told the conference.
The Caribbean Sustainable Cities Conference, which ran from November 16 to 18, was hosted by The University of the West Indies, Mona’s Western Jamaica Campus, under the theme ‘Go Green, Go Safe, Go Smart’.