The Jamaica Information Technology and Services Alliance (JITSA) has a new Board of Directors to further drive its IT mandates for a two-year term, from 2016 to 2018.

The new board was elected at its recent Annual General Meeting (AGM) and is tasked with three key mandates: advocacy, industry development and organisational strengthening, according to a JITSA news release.

In his newly elected role as president, Neil Abrahams said, “As a technologist I have never been more optimistic than I am now about the IT industry, advances in broadband and data coverage in Jamaica, new consumption models – such as Cloud computing and the proliferation of software of varying sizes and costs – when married with the explosion of mobile computing literally make anything possible.

“ The new board and I look forward to working towards making our industry more relevant, to change the perception that services performed by foreigners are automatically better than those performed by Jamaicans, to increase our membership, drive greater value for our members and working with the Jamaica Computer Society to grow the percentage of GDP delivered by ICT.”

Commenting on his tenure, outgoing president Mervyn Eyre said, “It has been a real honour for me to have served as JITSA’s inaugural president for the past two years. The formation of JITSA represents a major milestone in the development of Jamaica’s IT sector and is now positioned to make a major contribution to the growth of the industry and more importantly, the enablement of digital transformation across public and private sectors.”

JITSA aims to take a leadership role in advocating change and pursuing more collaborative opportunities with Government, private sector and other interest groups. The alliance will seek to become more involved in accelerating the passage and approval of key pieces of necessary legislative change in the local ICT Act, Electronic Transactions Act and Cyber Security Act. It will continue to drive initiatives that support the development of the IT industry and be a champion for the advancement of a digital economy, the release said.

To build internal efficiencies and capabilities aimed at institutional strengthening, JITSA will seek out new alliances and memberships that support the digital agenda and develop and make available an IT registry of locally registered businesses with JITSA as the go-to body for all things IT in Jamaica, the release said.

JITSA was launched in July 2013 and currently represents more than 40 companies locally and internationally, including a signed memorandum of understanding with the Jamaica Computer Society (JCS).