Nevis Premier Parry With Alec Saini
Charlestown Nevis
April 4, 2008
The Nevis Island Administration (NIA) and 21st Century Telecoms announced on Friday April 4th 2008 the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the establishment of the telecommunications company’s headquarters to be located on the island of Nevis. Signatories to the MOU were Premier, the Hon. Joseph Parry and Mr. Alec Saini founder and CEO of 21st Century Telecoms.
The Premier said pursuant to the MOU the company will start its operations in temporary headquarters on the island.
“We have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with 21st Century Telecommunications, the purpose of which is to have their Headquarters here on the island of Nevis. The company will be setting up across the Caribbean and hopes to start operations here within the next two to three months.
“We have reached a stage where Mr. Saini will start in temporary headquarters. He will purchase a bit of land and establish his headquarters with a conference center, and accommodation for his people,” the Premier said.
Mr. Parry said 21st Century Telecoms (Caribbean) will employ many Nevisians and Kittitians. He also pointed out that all the technical expertise required was not available in St. Kitts and Nevis and the company would be forced to import skilled personnel for the initial stage of the project.
The Premier registered his gratitude to company founder and CEO Mr. Alec Saini for choosing Nevis as its Corporate Headquarters and for signing the agreement.
Mr. Saini in his response said he was honored and excited to put the company’s head offices on the island and it was his intention to establish a state of the art facility that would become the third major operator of telecommunication services in the Caribbean.
“Our telecommunications company is operational right now. It uses different technology than that of Cable and Wireless and Digicel. We use CDMA [Code Division Multiple Access, (a digital cellular technology)] which is main technology in the United States (US). It would benefit US visitors coming to this beautiful island so they will be able to make a call, receive a call using their CDMA handset from Verizon, Sprint, Alltel and all the other major technology operators.
“We’ll also put a wireless internet on the island which would benefit the local population. You don’t have to go to Cable and Wireless and pay $200 for wireless internet as well as for voice over internet. So we are very excited to be here and we are very grateful to the Premier of Nevis for inviting us and helping us to get it off the ground,” he said.
According to Mr. Saini the objective would be to create a Pan-Caribbean wide mobile telecommunications and internet communications company in the Caribbean which would be beneficial to the people. He also said it was his company’s intention to operate in St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica as well as Grenada, Barbados and Antigua.
21st century Telecommunications Company has a pedigree of running major global telecommunications company in Europe and the United States and hopes to list on the London Stock Exchange within the next 36 months.