CITO Head Urges Organizations To Include Disaster Preparedness Measures In Strategic Plans

Excerpt from the JIS Online Newsletter - January 27, 2006

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Central Information Technology Office (CITO), Michael duQuesnay, is urging both public and private sector organizations to include disaster preparedness measures in their overall strategic plans, in light of the recent disasters that have occurred locally and internationally.

Mr. duQuesnay made the call while addressing executives and decision makers from both the public and private sectors who attended a 'Sponsors Breakfast', hosted by CITO recently at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel.

According to the CEO, it was critical for organizations to put disaster preparedness plans in place as it would determine the rate at which they operated during and after a disaster.

"We think that ICT and disaster preparedness and management are fundamental, as more and more technology is embedded in everything that we do and in this particular circumstance, it is embedded in the business processes that has to be brought back or kept going when we have an unexpected event," he said.

In this regard, Mr. duQuesnay informed that CITO's 3rd Regional Summit, slated to be held from May 9 to 11 at the Jamaica Pegasus, will be held under the theme: "Utilizing Information Communication Technology in Disaster Preparedness and Management".

Some sponsors already on board for this year's Summit are, Annbel Limited, Digicel, Citrix, Fujitsu, International Business Machines (IBM), Jamaica Money Market Brokers (JMMB), Illuminat Jamaica, Moore Tech, National Commercial Bank (NCB), the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), Spatial Innovation and the Spectrum Management Authority.

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