Both organizations signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) at the Hilton Barbados.  Donald Austin, President, Cable & Wireless (Barbados) Limited signed on behalf of the company's operations in Dominica, St Kitts and Nevis, Jamaica, Cayman Islands, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua & Barbuda, Grenada, Turks & Caicos, Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, Montserrat and Barbados.

"Cable & Wireless recognises the potential impact that hurricanes can have on the lives of our employees, our customers and the communities we serve in 13 countries across the Caribbean.  This agreement reinforces our commitment to the region and we are confident that our relationship with CDERA will enable Cable & Wireless to make a critical contribution to disaster recovery in the Caribbean."  Explained Chris Hetherington, CEO Americas and the Caribbean, Cable & Wireless International

Valerie Williams, Company Secretary, Cable & Wireless (Barbados) said the main objective of the MOU was "to analyse as a region the issues and vulnerabilities that we face so robust plans can be developed to mitigate the impact of any major disaster to our customers, staff and associated parties".

Jeremy Collymore, Head of CDERA, said the agreement "presented a critical step towards our strategic goal of building partnerships for comprehensive disaster management".  He added that the MOU was being undertaken in the emerging environment of e-government, e-business and Information Communications and Technology."

Mark Hanvey, Chief Security Officer, Cable & Wireless International spoke of the importance of Communications and IT infrastructures in the event of a hurricane or other disaster.  He said, "Cable & Wireless has invested heavily to insure that the right levels of security and resilience have been built into our systems in the event of a disaster"

Under the agreement a mechanism will be developed whereby the disaster management and emergency telecommunications activities of Cable & Wireless Caribbean operations are coordinated with those carried out by CDERA with the objectives of:

1. Providing Member States/C&W Caribbean Businesses affected by disasters with the establishment of emergency telecommunications services and relief assistance to alleviate the immediate effects of disasters;

2. Conducting training and education activities to improve the disaster preparedness capabilities of C&W Caribbean Businesses;

3. Implementing at the community level, disaster management programmes, in collaboration with government and non-governmental organizations which have similar objectives;

4. Integrating the C&W Caribbean Businesses fully into national and regional emergency management programmes.

Also contained in the document were areas of proposed collaboration between the two orgnaisations.  These will include:-

a) Disaster Preparedness & Contingency Planning

b) Disaster response

c) Training, Education and Information sharing

d) Establishment of emergency telecommunications systems

e) Establishment and testing of telecommunications driven Early Warning Systems.

f) Promotion of a comprehensive multi-hazard C&W Disaster Management Plan to its members.

g) Seeking to raise the level of awareness among National Disaster Organisations, Governments within CDERA, participating States and regional organisations to the roles and functions of C&W in disaster situations.

h) Cordinating its disaster management activities with other regional, international communications stakeholders.

i) Facilitating the integration of C&W disaster plans into national disaster plans.

j) Facilitating the testing and use of new and emerging technologies and their application to disaster management activities.

k) Participating where possible in C&W's internal disaster planning and simulations.

l) CDERA and Cable & Wireless will exchange information, meet periodically and consult on matters of mutual interest.

m) CDERA and Cable & Wireless will collaborate in disaster management capacity building and training.

n) CDERA and Cable & Wireless utilize their respective newsletters, web based products and outlets to disseminate information.

Mr Austin also presented the CDERA head with a Blackberry on behalf of the region.