 |
| Caribbean children in Frigate Bay, St. Kitts, blowing bubbles |
As a member of the Caribbean ICT Stakeholders Virtual Community (CIVIC), I follow the online discussion on ICT for Development in the region. (If you wish to join the CIVICa multi-stakeholder, regional and multilingual network network at http://dgroups.idrc.ca/groups/icacaribbean, contact the moderator, Mr. Yacine Khelladi at yacine@yacine.net). One of the latest posts was on a newpaper article, citing the World Bank’s view on the Caribbean from an ICT perspective. Already members of the CIVIC groups have somewhat sarcastically iterated remarks like “so nice of the World Bank to tell us what we know and live with already…”. However, the World Bank’s profiling of the Caribbean is still interesting, as it gives an overview of how the Bank sees itself and its activities on ICT4D in the Caribbean Region.
The article about World Bank projects on ICT in the Caribbean follows here:
WASHINGTON, CMC – The World Bank says the Caribbean and other developing countries face many challenges in improving their Information Communications Technology (ICT) sectors to yield the greatest benefits fortheir people.
The Washington-based financial institution said this included improving affordability in order to reach one-third of the population of International Development Association (IDA) countries who currently lives
beyond the ICT networks; widening access to more advanced, affordable ICT services, such as broadband for high-speed internet; and leveraging the new ICT infrastructure to improve the delivery of services and to build on it as a source of economic growth.
In addition, the bank said among other challenges is “developing and aligning people skills relevant to the Information Technology-enabled Services (ITeS) industries and knowledge economy”.
World Bank, however, said its support is evolving to reflect the new challenges and opportunities of the sector. It said technical assistance and investment operations are increasingly focusing on closing the ICT infrastructure gap; financing broadband infrastructure; using ICT to improve the delivery of public services; and supporting the growth of the IT-enabled services (ITeS) industry.
The World Bank said it has supported more than 100 developing countries with investments and technical assistance, stating that since 2003, it has committed over US$1.3 billion for investment in stand-alone ICT projects.
A further US$45 million was spent on analytical work and technical assistance in the ICT sector, it said.
The bank said its investments have contributed to attracting over US$30 billion in private sector investments in ICT in low-income countries from 1997-2007.
In addition, the World Bank said it supports ICT components in lending projects across other sectors, such as education, health, and public sector management.
In a 2006 study, this figure was estimated to be US$7.3 billion in some 1,700 active projects under preparation or implementation, it said.
(Source: http://www.antiguaobserver.com/?p=57524. By CMC - Wednesday, April 20th, 2011.)
