Thursday's ceremony included Minister of Telecommunication Hon. Jerrol Thompson; Malcolm Wilson, Head of the Optical Fibre Project; Permanent Secretary in the Telecommunication Ministry, Mr. Allan Alexander; Mr. Kelly and Jankey Glass, Director and Manager of Kelectric Company Limited; Contractors from Alcatel Marine Networks a French GCM and SCM Company; Jerry George, PRO Digicel OECS and staff members of the Ministry of Telecommunication, Science, technology and Industry.

According to the Wilson, a cable station will be built here soon where all telecom operators can have equal-access connection based on the same price and conditions. This he said will help to significantly reduce costing for telecom services and improve the speed and quality of data transmission.

The Hon Dr. Jerrol Thompson said he is elated about the project and that the bringing of the fibre optic cable is a collaborative effort which initially started in Guadeloupe as a grant from the French government. . He said he is pleased to see private entities of the Caribbean coming together to make the project possible. He added that four years ago the cost of a T1 line was 24 thousand US dollars which was prohibitive for ICT investments for St. Vincent and the Grenadines. He said that when this project matures later this year people will see the effects of competition for decreasing prices.

Dr. Thompson said this project will attract new investments. That government will give it every ounce of support. He said that the licensing process is very transparent and the ECTEL and the NTRC have done their job. The government has seen the recommendations and is looking to approve it. He said that the fibre optic cable will improve the area of small business to use information in communications technology. He said the larger companies can expand into new areas and diversify in communication. He added that there will be a liberalization of the tele-communications market and all the other associated things will change the way we do business.

Minister Thompson said that we have met the challenges of CSME and globalization and this new development have allowed for the extension in the area of e-Commerce. He added that there can now be other internet service providers, long distance card holders can now use the bandwidth to generate their own business. He added that St. Vincent and the Grenadines are leading the way in harmonization which is very important today.