MINISTER MAYNARD AFFIRMS ST. KITTS AND NEVIS’ COMMITMENT TO ACHIEVING UNIVERSAL AFFORDABLE BROADBAND CONNECTION BEFORE 2030

Basseterre, St. Kitts, October 1, 2022 (SKNIS): Minister of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), the Honourable Konris Maynard, said that the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis is committed to achieving Universal Affordable Broadband Connection to residents and citizens of the Federation before 2030.

“St. Kitts and Nevis gives the commitment to leave no one unconnected and achieve Universal affordable Broadband connection to 100% of our residents and citizens before 2030. We will continue our collaboration with the ITU and other CTU member states so that we can provide the real dream of a digital economy and full e-government services to all the people in the federation of St. Kitts and Nevis,” Minister Maynard announced during his presentation of St. Kitts and Nevis’ policy statement at the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) Plenipotentiary Conference taking place in Bucharest, Romania from September 26th to October 14th , 2022.

He said that the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis is about to begin its digital transformation journey which will start with the ‘Whole of Government Strategy’.

“While we have achieved individual milestones, to achieve full Digital Transformation it is now necessary to fully embrace the ‘Whole of Government’s strategy’. However, due to all the limits associated with Small Island Developing States such as ours, the Whole of Government strategy requires us to collaborate with the best ICT industry practitioners to aid in the capacity building of our local technical talent and access to affordable and concessionary capital investment,” he said.

So far, the strategy has resulted in “About 85% mobile and internet penetration in St. Kitts and Nevis; Digital application for financial assistance during the pandemic; Online Vehicle Registration and Licensing; Creating an Immunization database; Online Immigration/Customs portal eliminating the need for paper and improving entry processing speeds,” he added.

Minister Maynard also said that the Ministry has “pledged to our local internet service providers to engage in “Partner2Connect’ initiatives to improve connectivity around the island and that “high-speed internet is provided for free to our local community centres around the island to enable unconnected citizens the opportunity to connect.”

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