IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

"We have a modern economy in many ways, [but] in many ways we need to become more modern in many more ways. . . technology can be helpful in this regard," Laing said last week at the Bahamas Yearly Technology Expo (BYTE). "The point of technology is to help us do what we do more efficiently and effectively [and] we must set our individual and collective minds to elevating productivity in this nation to new levels.

Dr. Minnis said the technology will also allow Family Islanders, in those instances where the determination is made to do so after a full assessment of their illnesses/injuries, to remain in their family island communities to receive treatment and care among their family members and friends.

Health officials are in discussions with three of the country’s leading physicians with regards to expanding the Telemedicine Pilot Programme to include their three areas of specialized care, according to Minister of Health and Social Development Dr. Hubert A. Minnis.

The idea that one can apply for a birth certificate or for a driver's licence by the click of a mouse is forward thinking by the government.

The potential for such a concept is limitless.

The Minnis government will today use its “e-Cabinet” system for the first time in a bid to make the top decision-making body “more efficient and effective” a Cabinet minister revealed yesterday.

Senator Kwasi Thompson, minister of state for finance, while addressing the launch of the government’s “one-stop shop” online portal for accessing government services, said: “Tomorrow [today], for the first time, we will use the e-Cabinet platform which makes it more convenient for the Cabinet to function.

More than 40,000 tax payments in 2017 were made manually, highlighting how far the government and private sector have to travel to achieve true digital government.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), in an economic analysis of the potential benefits from its $30m project to transform the government's digital/IT infrastructure and boost Bahamian economic competitiveness, revealed that thousands of VAT, business licence and real property tax payments are still being made "in person".

Presented by Carol Roach, Deputy Director of Information Technology in the Ministry of Finance, the e-government seminar educated brokers, agents, appraisers and developers on the five transactional features currently on the site: real property tax payments, driver’s licence renewals, vendor inquiries, traffic fine payments and online customer service. Future upgrades to the site include web presence of the Bahamas Postal Service, Cabinet & Disaster Management (NEMA), and the Department of Marine Resources.

Addressing stakeholders on behalf of the State Minister for Finance, Financial Secretary John A. Rolle explained how much easier it is to register government documents with a credit card and an e-signature to conduct business in one of the most popular regional offshore jurisdictions.

The forum, which is free and open to the public, will review the benefits of conducting business through the Government’s online portal, what it is doing to modernise services through technology, and to include businesses in the process.

The Government of The Bahamas will “respond aggressively” to recommendations made by the Ease of Doing Business Committee in an effort to address the global outlook on ease of doing business in The Bahamas, said Prime Minister, Dr. the Hon. Hubert A. Minnis, while addressing the annual Bahamas Business Outlook Seminar on Thursday, January 18, 2018.

The ‘Ease of Doing Business’ Committee was appointed last year by Prime Minister Minnis after a 2017 World Bank Annual Report listed The Bahamas as 119 out of 190 countries for ease of doing business.

A WiFi zone that runs from Arawak Cay to the Sir Sidney Poitier Bridge is on the way through a partnership between Aliv, the Department of Information and Communications Technology and the Ministry of Tourism, officials announced yesterday.

The groups signed a three-year agreement to launch a “smart cruise port.”

Officials said the installation process began yesterday and is expected to be completed in the second quarter of this year.

• Aiming to add new one every six-eight weeks
• Targeting 20-fold increase to 100,000 users
• Unveils ‘one-stop shop’ for e-government

The government is aiming to make 40 public services available online by year-end through adding an additional one to its portal every six-eight weeks, a Cabinet minister revealed yesterday.

The upgrades are part of Phase I of the Government’s plan to “transform schools into strong, technological centres” through national and international linkages utilising an Information Communications Technology (ICT) Sub-Component.

Most recently, members of the Bahamas Insurance Association and the Bahamas Insurance Brokers Association got a firsthand glimpse into the e-government site through a tour led by Carol Roach, Deputy Director Department of Information Technology.

“Today, we change the concept of service delivery by moving government services from the counter only, to the computer screen also. Today, we begin E-Government in The Bahamas,” Prime Minister Ingraham said.

“This is a fundamental change that could have tremendous benefits for our country, as today we live in a world where technology is driving business and service delivery.”

In keeping with its thrust towards E-government, the Bahamas Government is hosting meetings with local stakeholders and representatives of e-Governance Academy, Estonia, from February 4-8, 2019.

The meetings are intended to provide participants with an overview of the impact of digitization on Estonia and the advantages for The Bahamas. It is expected that eventually the Academy will propose the way forward for e-government transformation for The Bahamas.

Noting that the decline in broadband Internet penetration indicated that Bahamians were not fully exploiting information and communications technology (ICT) opportunities, a sector seen by many countries as a vital to economic growth, Wayne Aranha said progress on online access would aid the development of industries such as e-commerce, tele-medicine and e-banking.

The former PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) partner and accountant, writing in URCA's 2012 report, said: "A major challenge for the Bahamas is to get more people online, particularly given that penetration decreased between 2009 and 2010.

Describing the report's finding that Bahamian companies faced a tax burden equivalent to 48 per cent of their annual profits as "high", Zhivargo Laing said that while the Government had made some headway in making the conduct of business in the Bahamas easier, it had "lots more progress to make".