By Fay Simmons

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

Prime Minister Philip Davis KC warned regional partners about the dangers of “digital colonisation” as he opened the 40th CANTO communications conference.

He argued that with developing nations growing increasingly dependent on digital platforms, many of them not originating from themselves, the Caribbean must work to secure its digital future with “urgency, seriousness and moral clarity”.

“Digital colonisation is not just about who owns the infrastructure. It is about who decides what is true. Who has access to power. Who profits from our participation. And who shapes the rules of this century’s economy. If we do not secure our digital future, someone else will define it for us,” said Mr Davis.

“So, the question before us is not whether the world is changing. It is whether we are willing to change with it - and whether we are prepared to do so with the urgency, seriousness and moral clarity this moment demands.”

Mr Davis called for the Caribbean to maintain digital sovereignty by investing in data storage infrastructure, regulating foreign digital actors, building platforms and working together to establish a regional framework.

“Just as we reclaimed our political independence in the last century, we must now assert our digital independence in this one. This means investing in regional infrastructure so our data is stored under our laws,” said Mr Davis.

“It means regulating foreign digital actors; not to push them out, but to ensure they respect our people, our laws and our values. It means building our own platform so that we are not always the last to know, the last to benefit, the last to matter.

“And it means uniting as a region - not to complain, but to co-ordinate. To create a common framework for digital sovereignty that gives the Caribbean a collective voice strong enough to demand respect in the global digital order. Friends, this is not a matter of pride. It is a matter of protection. Because if we do not defend our digital space now, we will soon find it too compromised to recover.”

Mr Davis said the cost of inaction is “visible, measurable and already being borne by the most vulnerable in our societies”, and the Caribbean must work together to ensure it can withstand current and future threats.

“We must also be clear: This is not simply about platforms or data storage; it is about security, sovereignty and stability. Cyber crime is not a future threat. It is a present one. Misinformation, data exploitation and digital surveillance are eroding trust and weakening democratic institutions,” said Mr Davis.

“Our electoral systems are vulnerable. Our public databases are exposed. Our citizens are being targeted - not with bombs or bullets— - but with falsehoods, with manipulation, with breaches of privacy that go unseen but cut deep.

“This is the nature of modern conflict—quiet, digital and relentless. And if we do not build the legal, institutional and technical frameworks to confront these threats now, then we will lose control of the very systems we depend on to function as sovereign nations.”