Caribbean Net News: Media professionals enjoy Cayman Islands business lunch

GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands: Information technology and all its ramifications for the press in today's environment were just some of the issues discussed when the Cayman Islands Government Chief Information Officer, Patricia Ebanks, and Caribbean Net News Senior Correspondent, Norman 'Gus' Thomas, together with Wendy Ledger, Senior Reporter with Cayman Net News enjoyed a "Business Lunch" at Hemingway's at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Grand Cayman.

The media chiefs described the meeting as "wonderful" as they have been speaking with each other on the telephone for the past four years, but only got to meet each other at Thursday's luncheon.

"Pat and I became acquainted when I served with the Antigua Government Information Service (GIS) back in 2000. At the time, Cecil Cassel, former Information Officer in Montserrat, Clement 'Juni' Liburd, Director General of Information in St. Kitts and myself were busy creating the GIS Caribbean, an internet-based news and information transfer service that links all the GIS Units of the region, allowing them to disseminate information the world over in seconds," the Kittitian-born Thomas said.

Ebanks described the GIS Caribbean service as timely and invaluable and has called for a special meeting of the GIS heads of the region where they could become further acquainted and plan ways in which they could work more closely together. The GIS in St. Maarten strongly supported Ebanks' call and offered to host such a meeting. However, the meeting has never materialized.

The trials and tribulations of the rebuilding effort in the Cayman Islands following the CI$2.3 billion worth of damage, caused by Hurricane Ivan last September, economics, financial services, education and the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) were among the many issues Ebanks and Thomas discussed.

Thomas, who joined Caribbean Net News last October, heads the company's team of regional correspondents.

The popular 'Business Lunch' series was started by Cayman Net News, the sister publication of Caribbean Net News and results from the fact that the Cayman Islands is a highly commercialized country where major business deals are brokered every day over lunch.

The 'Business Lunch' is a regular feature in the Business Monday edition of the popular Cayman Net News newspaper (www.caymannetnews.com).

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