Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Dame Billie Miller made this disclosure at the opening ceremony for the Commonwealth Regional Connect Workshop e-Business And e-Government In The Caribbean last Monday at Grand Barbados Beach Resort.
She said that based on a recent International Telecommunications Union/World Bank study based on data for 2005, Barbados' Internet access, at 594 per 1 000 people is the third highest. It is only surpassed by the United States of America and Bermuda.
"Its current access rate is in fact higher than that of developed countries like Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Denmark," Dame Billie revealed.
In terms of telephone usage, the minister said Barbados had 1 265 fixed and mobile subscribers per 1 000 people, which was higher than the United States with 1 227, and Canada with 1 080.
"This provides a strong platform for the transformation of the Barbadian economy and society in the 21st century," she said, while adding that Government had fully recognised the centrality of information and communications technology to the country's future economic and social development.
She noted that part of its strategic plan was to create the legislative and administrative framework to facilitate the growth of e-government and e-business.
"The drafting of an Electronics Transaction Act and a Data Protection Act are noteworthy of this context," she said.
Dame Billie said the workshop brought multifaceted expertise from a variety of invaluable sources. It also provided the opportunity for Caribbean nations to share and discuss experiences of e-commerce and e-Government, benchmarking best practices and identifying priorities for the future.
The workshop was attended by representatives from CARICOM, CARICAD, the Caribbean Development Bank, Commonwealth Telecommunications Union, Inter-American Development Bank, and the Canadian International Development Agency.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): (KB)
Quelle/Source: The Nation Newspaper, 05.12.2007
