Is Saint Lucia Ready for the Digital Revolution?
In a vastly changed world, mainly due to COVID-19, an internet driven populace has reinforced the need for Digital Readiness and Digital Transformation. Digital Readiness includes building and supporting the required infrastructure, platforms and ensuring that the people have access to digital services. This requires the involvement of all parties in society including the government, private sector and the public. In a presentation at the ECCB’s Growth and Resilience Dialogues during the week of April 14th, Dr Justin Ram (international economist with over twenty-five years of international experience in practice, research, development and management) presented analysis on the Digital Readiness of the OECS islands. Subsequently, Dr. Ram’s data presentation will be discussed; including a detailed understanding on why Saint Lucia was ranked last among the six islands analyzed.
Digital Readiness Factors
The Digital Readiness index was based of three key areas:
· Digital Infrastructure — This includes the mobile and broadband penetration as well as the percentage of individuals using the Internet.
· Digital Platforms — This area focuses on the cybersecurity efforts as well as the usage of e-government.
· Facilitation — This discusses the enabling environment that the government provides to the population to support Digital Readiness.
Digital Readiness Findings
As can be seen above, Saint Lucia ranked last among the 6 OECS islands analyzed. Saint Lucia was also the only OECS country not ranked in the top 100 in the world. This is no surprise as the current administration’s implication in the budget presentation (on Tuesday April 13th) that their administration has done little to improve wireless internet access within Saint Lucia. Shockingly, the Saint Lucian Prime Minister tried taking credit for a project completed in its entirety BEFORE his administration’s stint.
Furthermore, the Ministry of Education has apparently launched an Ebooks Programme but cannot seem to provide any information about this initiative on their own website. Does the current administration have any strategy in place to help Saint Lucia rise from last place on the Digital Readiness Index or are we doomed to continue to fall further behind as the world evolves. The current administration has boasted about their digital transformation projects in the 2021/2022 Budget Address. However, they have failed to make any tangible improvements to raise Saint Lucia’s Digital Readiness which can be seen clearly from the mediocre results produced.
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