Massy manager says: We must be creators of technology

MASSY Technologies Infocom marketing manager Learie Roberts says TT has to move away from being consumers to creators of technology.

He was addressing the Young Innovators Mobile App Competition final presentation and prize-giving ceremony at the Centre for Enterprise Development, Innovation Avenue, Freeport, on Friday.

The winner was Chaguanas North Secondary School, with a proposal for an app called GLAM (geographic location accessories marker) 99.

The competition was jointly sponsored by Massy Technologies and Novo Media and was held in collaboration with the Caribbean Industrial Research Institute (CARIRI).

Roberts said Barbados was ranked above TT on the technology scale, and wondered whether this was because TT was reliant on the energy sector, as opposed to Barbados, which was based on tourism.

“We have to start wondering what Barbados has that we don’t have. Is it that they have a tourist economy, so they have to provide those technologies that people in Europe and North America are accustomed to?

“Is it because we have an oil-based economy and we only care about technology in the oil industry and we don’t care about providing portals for citizens to get their drivers’ licence or passports and things like that? We need to stop becoming consumers of technology and start becoming creators of technology.”

He said that was why in his budget every year “I try to allocate some money towards programmes like these, because what they do is allow young people to become creators of technology.

“I believe it is the way, a good way for Trinidad to start diversifying, because we have a lot of bright people here, we have a high literacy index here, a lot of smart people in Trinidad. It is the way for us to go: start creating technology.”

CARIRI ICT programme lead Hayden Charles said the competition was designed to allow students to create an “idea for an innovative mobile app that will solve an issue currently existing in TT.”

He said some 50 schools had entered, with 35 per cent of submissions from St George East, 30 per cent from Caroni, 18 per cent from Victoria, ten per cent from St. Patrick, five per cent from Port of Spain and three per cent from Tobago. Charles said submissions were in the fields of education, healthcare, culture and tourism, infrastructure and transport, environment and agriculture.