St Kitts gets help filling ICT infrastructure gaps

Bernadette Lewis, Secretary General of the CTU (left) her agency is seeking to support St. Kitts and Nevis in the development of not just the ICT infrastructure and services but in enhancing its competitiveness on the global scene. At right is Telecommuni

BASSETERRE, St Kitts, Thursday March 24, 2011 – Government’s effort to provide greater e-services and boost efficiency within the public sector is being assisted by a team from the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU) who are undertaking a three-month technical audit of the Information Technology infrastructure.

Telecommunications and Information Technology Minister Glenn Phillip said the country will benefit greatly from the exercise.

“What we intend to do in the future is to provide e-Government services that will enable our citizens to really interact with Government in a number of ways,” he said, noting that it will allow for instant feedback as well as increase transparency. “Persons will be able to log on to whatever Government website and see exactly what is happening in different Ministries of the Government and so this is a step forward.”

Minister Phillip added that he intends to work steadfastly to fulfill his mandate of making communication more cost effective.

“As we speak, the cost for telecommunications is going up within Government. However, if you look at it from an international perspective, the cost of telecommunications is on a downward spiral and so we do not want to stay on the same track [of] spending the same amount of monies we did five years ago at this same time,” he said.

“We know that the technology is there and the cost savings are out there and so this is an attempt to…keep abreast with technology and gain cost efficiency within the telecommunication services.”

The audit will also allow for an evaluation of the human resource capacity of public servants in relation to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). 

Secretary General of the CTU Bernadette Lewis said her agency is seeking to support St. Kitts and Nevis in the development of not just the ICT infrastructure and services but in enhancing its competitiveness on the global scene using ICTs.

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