San Cristóbal y Nieves firma acuerdo con Taiwán sobre cooperación tecnológica

Taiwan signs new five-year ICT agreement with St. Kitts-Nevis

St. Kitts-Nevis has signed a five year Information Communication Technology (ICT) agreement with Taiwan that the twin island federation says will contribute towards the transformation of the local economy.

Information Minister Glen Phillip said that St. Kitts-Nevis, and indeed, the wider Caribbean is of the view that ICTs will act to re-invigorate Caribbean economies and underpin their efforts to compete as a region within the global economy.

He said adequate focus must be placed on the need to align the next technology development steps to the current and projected socio-economic landscape.

“Our aims for technology enhanced national development are not frenetic but rather seek to contribute to the creation of enabling environments for government, private sector and the general public to confluence towards the enhancement of the quality of life in St. Kitts and Nevis,” he said.

“The outputs of this agreement seek to impact the quality of life in St. Kitts and Nevis through direct applications of the ICTs in improved and new E-Government systems that increase government efficiency and effectiveness and provide an added medium for citizen-led governance, in a measured and sustainable manner.

“We also seek to build capacities of our nationals to better realize the service efficiencies of new government interfaces while establishing a culture of content creation development directly impacting the global information society of which we are apart,” said Phillip, who signed the agreement with Taiwan’s Resident Ambassador Miguel Tsao in the presence of Prime Minister Dr. Denzil L. Douglas.

The Taiwanese diplomat said that his country’s cooperation in ICT with Basseterre would “boost St. Kitts and Nevis’ role in Caribbean region.

““This is also because your country has enjoyed a technology sprawling advantage which encouraged Kittitians and Nevisians to “think blue” and made the warm bed to grow technological ideas easier.  Nearly all the students in this country enjoy the benefits of a personal tablet or laptop which is a living proof of this advantage,” he said, adding that Taiwan has the capacity and calibre to contribute efforts in the ICT development.

“Taiwan enjoys advantage in technology manufacture industry and service networks around the world.  In 2013, laptop computers output accounted for 29.8 per cent of global market share; tablet personal computers output accounted for 73.4 per cent of global market share and we are a world renowned semi-conductor manufacturer,” he said.