St Kitts and Nevis ICT Minister joins for 2020 Caribbean Economic Forum

St Kitts and Nevis: Minister of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Akilah Byron-Nisbett, accompanied her regional and international counterparts on Tuesday, October 27, 2020, for the 5th Caribbean Economic Forum – How to Digitize an Economy.

The ceremony, which was held virtually, concentrated on establishing a digital economy. Minister Byron-Nisbett utilised the occasion to update her counterparts on St. Kitts and Nevis’ situation where the Federation’s digital footprint is involved.

“In 2019, our administration would have embarked on our strategic route to expedite towards an innovative digital economy by the implementation of our digital transformation plan, which includes the period of 2020-2022,” stated Akilah Byron-Nisbett.

The ICT Minister stated that however, COVID-19 would have hindered the process, much is being done to get back on course.

“We are still operating on that route towards our digital transformation because our idea is to build St. Kitts and Nevis a world leader in digital services offering for our citizens, residents, private sector, as well as investors,” stated Minister Byron-Nisbett. “We want to be able to do this in a way that is secure, effective, interactive, and responsive, and one that would satisfy the needs of our end-users, and would enable us to develop our economy, as well as add to our national expansion.”

She said that St. Kitts and Nevis is exercising a comparative approach to that of Rwanda. Rwanda’s course was foundational, where they built the essential strategies first then continued to develop their Digital Economy based on these policies. Their digital transformation dated back some 20 years before.

“We are practising a simplistic passageway, but we know it is necessary and that is one that guarantees that the foundational components are implemented from the origin. And so, we are starting right now on developing our whole of Government Technology Strategy and our Cybersecurity Strategy,” added the minister. “Our cybersecurity plan is being equalled with the development of our technology strategy because we recognise that people need to have that spirit that their data is guarded and they need to have faith in the integrity of the data particularly the data that will be housed on our government servers.”

The minister said that the route St. Kitts and Nevis is currently on will produce many advantages for all.

Minister of ICT and Innovation in Rwanda, Paula Ingabire, and Director of Data Processing Department in Barbados’ Ministry of Innovation, Science and Smart Technology, (MIST) Rodney Taylor, also joined in the 5th Caribbean Economic Forum.