Definition of Data

n/a

Main Focus of Document

Sets out the government's national ICT strategy for the country

Target Beneficiaries or Sector

citizens; government

Key Elements

The main ICT businesses that the government wishes to attract are information-based industries including data entry, data manipulation, data conversion, information processing, and information management, and these require fairly inexpensive broadband connection in order to flourish. 
St Kitts and Nevis needs to update laws to accommodate the emergence of online commerce and communications so as to provide the enabling environment. 

The Plan aims to support this process. Key components of the plan include:
Electronic Transactions Legislation 
This project component would ensure the preparation of an Act of Parliament for the facilitation and recognition of electronic contracts, the creation and exchange of electronic communication, the establishment of a Certification Authority and the accreditation of Certification Service Providers, and the facilitation of the recognition of electronic filing by government departments. 
This project component also envisages institutional and capacity building in government for the accreditation of Service Providers under the proposed Act of Parliament and the development of legal standards with UNCITRAL Secretariat as well as assisting in the formulation of appropriate regulations.

Data Protection 
The aim here is to develop and implement legislative or other measures to ensure that St Kitts and Nevis meets the adequacy levels required by the EU Directive on Data Protection (and other important standards), and promote institutional development for data protection and privacy issues.  
This would help to ensure that St Kitts and Nevis complies with required international legal standards for the development of the IT-enabled services sector and the business process outsourcing sector.

To accomplish e-government, the government should undertake the following steps: 
- Design and implement a stepwise programme for installing computer networks in public administration agencies and related training of all civil servants with a view to supporting the deployment of government-to-government and government-to-public systems, including e-procurement, and electronic transactions through intranets, extranets and internet sites. Priority may be given to transactions between businesses and public administration. 
- Set up web-based resources providing basic official information for the citizens of OECS countries, especially information related to main circumstances of life. 
- Set up web-based services and other appropriate electronic resources (e.g. CD Rom versions of the web sites) providing practical information and advice on natural disaster preparedness and emergency situations in conjunction with alert and rescue programmes. - Establish a country portal providing basic information about the country, its administrative organisation, investment and migration regulations and procedures, etc, targeted at economic partners and customers in other countries. 
- Establish a phased programme with a view to allowing for electronic payment to the public administration.  

A number of key strategic steps are essential to the overall success of the plan and these are outlined below: 
- The first step would be the official endorsement of the overall policy and strategy. The National ICT Strategic Plan must first be publicly accepted by the Prime Minister and Cabinet as the roadmap to take St Kitts and Nevis to the ICT empowered society that has long been envisioned. 
- No less critical is the creation of an enabling environment for e-business in particular through adaptation or adoption and continuing adjustment of appropriate legal and regulatory frameworks. It should become top priority to pass the laws that are necessary to create this environment within as short a timeframe as possible. 
- Within the central government administration, a senior officer should be appointed as coordinator of ICT programmes. He/she should be attached directly to the Cabinet Minister in charge of ICT policy and programmes. 
- A specific Information and Communications Technology Unit (ICTU) should be formed and staffed, within the ministry of the Cabinet Minister responsible for ICT policy and programmes. This unit would be headed by the senior officer that was placed in charge of these ICT programmes. This unit would be responsible for ensuring the implementation of the National ICT Strategic Plan. 
- ICT officers should be appointed in each entity of the central government, that is within each Ministry. These officers would be responsible for interacting with the ICTU regarding all ICT-related matters for each of these ministries. As a result, in the public administration a network of ICT officers in all entities would work under a national coordinator toward the implementation of the related activities. 
- The ICTU would be responsible for initiating a long term effort toward ICT and information literacy and for fostering an innovation and learning culture among all segments of the population. This would be both a requirement and an ultimate goal. 
- The ICTU would also attempt to widen the effects of the telecommunications divestiture by enforcing interconnectivity, expanding universal service and catering for competition. This ground work would facilitate the implementation of further policies geared at encouraging business competitiveness and development through ICT investments in all sectors and the development of ICT industries. 
- The financial services should themselves fully incorporate electronic transactions in their operations as well as adjust their loans practices to the nature of digital economy. 
- Furthermore, ICTs should be harnessed with a view to promoting national cultures and identities, expanding citizenship and democratic participation and supporting the enhancement of the quality of life, especially for disabled persons. 
- For the governance and management of these endeavours at the local, national and regional levels, it is recommended that regular roundtable discussions be held, where all stakeholders could meet to co-operate in observing and analysing the situation and needs, making propositions, joining forces in their implementation and assessing the results. 
- A long-term view must be taken as to bring about the necessary change. A time-frame of five years is deemed to be appropriate.

Related strategic moves include: 
- Rural, isolated or ill-favoured communities which commercial operators are not willing to offer high quality services to within the year following their introduction into the more densely populated and easily accessible areas should be granted the right to use any suitable alternative for local and wide area networking and obtain for themselves or their providers all required licenses. 
- An annual audit of the implementation of the deregulation of the telecommunications sector should be conducted in conjunction with the National Round Tables, its results made public and appropriate adaptations brought into the Telecommunications Act and related policy positions. 
- Ongoing evaluation should be conducted on the need to issue new telecommunications licenses to respond to demand and to improve the competitive environment. 
- Government should enforce regulations that allow for providing services adjudged essential at a socially acceptable cost e.g. by compensating users for price differences resulting from localization constraints or abuse of dominant situations. 
- Government should pursue the efforts underway with a view to reclaiming the administration of the Internet Top Level Domain Names for the OECS countries and establish suitable and effective registry operations. 
- Government should develop plans by which all citizens can obtain a free electronic mail address and organisations a domain name address at an appropriate cost under the countries top level domain name, with a view to expand the visibility of OECS countries on the internet.
- The combined use of open source software and proprietary software should be pursued and open source software systematically applied whenever appropriate, especially in the public sector.
- The current legislation should be revised in order to exempt certain value added and not-for-profit services from the need to obtain telecommunications licenses. For example, opening a small internet café of less than ten computers is a very involved and costly process. Streamlining this could possibly help facilitate the creation of more of these types of services. 
- The regulatory authorities should be required to constantly review the range of services that are available or could become available under normal economic conditions in the countries with a view to updating the definition of those services included under universal service and ensure that access to high quality services is not restricted de facto to certain categories of citizens and organisations.

Legal and Regulatory Framework for E-commerce
ICT has led to new electronic markets that extend customer choice while resulting in significant benefits in efficiency. This new environment, however, requires new policies and laws and amendments to existing legal frameworks. For e-commerce to flourish in SKN and become a significant economic factor, market participants must have confidence that transactions will follow predictable guidelines and that the rule of law will protect all stakeholders. A basic legal framework must cover an extensive list of issues and policies, beginning with electronic transactions, digital signatures, privacy and protection of data, cybercrime, consumer rights, quality of service, dispute resolution, and jurisdiction of courts to hear disputes, to name a few. The absence of a comprehensive legal/regulatory framework does not preclude online commerce but it will limit the value and growth potential of electronic markets. The task of reforming or adopting new laws will be time consuming and St Kitts and Nevis should consider regional initiatives and mechanisms to share information to facilitate the process. The task of identifying laws implicated in e-commerce requires the active participation of both the private and public sectors and the dedicated assistance of local attorneys and experienced consultants who know the global legal framework and the issues under discussion.

Policy/Regulation Mirrors

n/a