Prime Minister Philip Davis has issued a stark warning in opposition to “digital colonization,” urging Caribbean nations to take daring, collective motion to safe their digital future and stop turning into “tenants in a home we don’t personal.”
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Talking on the opening ceremony of the fortieth Annual CANTO Convention in Nassau on Saturday, Davis referred to as on regional leaders to confront the rising imbalance within the world digital panorama and make investments severely in digital infrastructure, cybersecurity, schooling, and homegrown innovation.
“We use international platforms to speak with our residents. We retailer nationwide information on servers positioned exterior our authorized jurisdiction. We undertake monetary applied sciences we can’t regulate, and depend on infrastructure we don’t management,” Davis mentioned.
“We name it progress. However in fact, it comes at a value: the sluggish erosion of our authority, our self-determination, our company.”
The Prime Minister described the present second as one in all pressing reckoning, the place synthetic intelligence, blockchain, and quantum computing are already reshaping the world, whereas many Caribbean nations nonetheless battle to make sure primary web entry and digital literacy.
“If we don’t safe our digital future, another person will outline it for us,” he mentioned.
Highlighting The Bahamas’ personal strides, Davis pointed to the launch of the Sand Greenback—the world’s first central financial institution digital foreign money—and the Digital Belongings and Registered Exchanges (DARE) Act, which positioned the nation as a worldwide regulatory chief within the area.
“We proved that we will lead on our personal phrases, for our personal individuals,” he mentioned, emphasizing that digital sovereignty “isn’t a matter of pleasure. It’s a matter of safety.”
Davis referred to as on Caribbean international locations to construct interoperable, safe digital methods; spend money on academics and coders; and create alternatives for youth to not solely use expertise however to steer in creating it.
“Expertise with out alternative is a tragedy,” he mentioned. “Our younger individuals are not merely customers of expertise. They’re inventors, designers, and problem-solvers.”
In a symbolic gesture of regional management, Davis additionally endorsed Bahamian technocrat Stephen Bereaux because the Caribbean’s candidate for Deputy Secretary-Common of the Worldwide Telecommunication Union (ITU).
“Backing Stephen isn’t merely about illustration. It’s about duty,” he mentioned. “As a result of once we place Caribbean management in world establishments, we aren’t simply elevating a person — we’re advancing the values, wants, and ambitions of 44 million individuals throughout our area.”
Celebrating CANTO’s fortieth anniversary, Davis praised the group’s function in constructing regional telecommunications capability and urged its members to tackle a good better management function in shaping the Caribbean’s digital future.
“Let this be the second we are saying: the Caribbean won’t drift into the digital world. We’ll drive it,” he mentioned.
