The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the government have just concluded discussions on an information technology and communications project, which calls for telecommunications reform, Cabinet Secretary, Dr Roger Luncheon, said.

However, for the project - which will be co-financed by the Government of Guyana and the IDB - to come on stream a number of undertakings by the government will have to be met, Luncheon said.

Briefing reporters on Wednesday on developments arising out of Cabinet, Luncheon who is also the Head of the Presidential Secretariat, said that those undertakings were now the subject of discussions with the Office of the Prime Minister, the Office of the President and major players in the information and communications sectors.

The Office of the President, he said, had the lead role in this project, which emerged from President Bharrat Jagdeo's vision that information technology had an incalculable role to play in the development of the economy of the country. The project, he said, aimed to facilitate the economic and financial exploitation of information and communication, commitments to which the government had subscribed and publicised. It was also intended to lead to the creation of national capacity in the training grounds including the University of Guyana and particularly in regulations and monitoring of the sector by government.

Additionally it was also intended to address the President's commitment to ensure that information technology became commonplace at the level of educational establishments.

One of the great demands of the project, he said, was the liberalisation of the telecommunications sector and in the very first instance attention was being paid to data transmission.