The summit, which is being staged under the theme: E-Trade, Limitless Growth Opportunities: Are you Prepared?  Will examine among other topics, opportunities for businesses to expand and reduce operational expenses through E-Trade and new ways of increasing business performance and efficiency.

Speaking at a Sponsor's Breakfast held yesterday at the Pegasus Hotel in Kingston, Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Central Information Technology Office (CITO), Dainsworth Richards, said the summit will provide business leaders with knowledge and tools needed to harness E-trade, by effectively translating "tech speak' into understandable business concepts.

"We will examine opportunities that exist for growth, and what businesses need to put in place to take advantage of these opportunities.  We will also look at how we can use E-Trade to reduce costs in the way we do business", he explained.

The Regional Summit will also explore important factors associated with E-Trade, including the regulatory environment and the technologies required; how to set up accounts and collections systems, logistics management, risk management and security.

According to Mr. Richards, the three-day summit is geared towards engaging different target audiences at various levels within organizations.  These range from executives to senior management to project implementers.

"Day one of the summit on May 9, will be geared toward CEOs, while day two targets the technical and middle managers.  The final day of the summit, is held in partnership with the Jamaica Computer Society and is specifically for IT implementers", Mr. Richards explained.

This approach, he noted, has worked well since the inception of the CITO Regional Summit in 2004, "We are building greater linkages between business executives and their IT managers and we have had good response from business leaders who have participated in the summit.  Last year when we looked at using ICT in Disaster Preparedness & Recovery, the CEO breakfast session was oversubscribed", he revealed.

Sponsors already confirmed for this year's Regional Summit include Digicel, Fujitsu, IBM, Xsomo and NCB e-Business.  Companies interested in coming on board as sponsors have up to March 9.

CITO is an agency of the Ministry of Industry, Technology, Energy and Commerce, (MITEC), which has among its main strategic objectives, to lead in establishing a world-class national ICT sector, aimed at making Jamaica the regional leader in ICT development.  The agency plays the lead role in the development and monitoring of the National ICT Strategic Plan and the National e-Readiness programme.