ST. LUICA: The community ICT centre will be a focal point for community training in digital services, and provide internet access for residents for research and other productive purposes.
The Government of Saint Lucia will take a significant step in bridging the digital divide when it opens a new, modern, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) community access centre in Canaries, tomorrow.
The village of Canaries was identified in the 2010 national census as being the community with the lowest level of internet penetration on the island. With an internet penetration rate of less than 15 percent in 2010, Canaries immediately became a focus of the administration to improve the level of ICT services available to the residents of the scenic western village.
The new community ICT access centre in Canaries will be the second such centre to be commissioned on the west coast, following the establishment of a similar centre in Soufriere a little over two years ago. The centre will be equipped with computers, printers, a projector, an electronic whiteboard and free broadband internet access.
It is expected that, like the Soufriere ICT access centre, the Canaries centre will be a focal point for community training in digital services, provide access for residents of the community wishing to access the internet and use the services of the centre for research and other productive purposes, and provide an internet Wi-Fi hot spot for students and other residents of the village.
Minister for the Public Service, Sustainable Development, Energy, Science and Technology, whose ministry is spearheading the initiative, said the Canaries ICT Access Centre will allow the government to provide greater access to citizens on a range of services that will soon be digitized, such as the payment of driver’s licenses. Hon. Dr. James Fletcher also indicated that over the next eight weeks, his ministry will commission similar modern ICT access centres across the country.
The official opening of the Canaries ICT access centre takes place at 4 p.m. on April 14.
