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OECS launches major regional e-government initiative
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| Published on Thursday, August 13, 2009 | Email To Friend Print Version
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CASTRIES, St Lucia -- OECS Member States have started to roll out an Electronic Government for Regional Integration Project (EGRIP) which should help them address some of the huge challenges of size and isolation faced by small island developing states.
The governments of Dominica, Grenada and St Lucia have each received soft loan financing equivalent to US2.4 million dollars from the World Bank for implementation of the project. The loans were provided under a special facility of the concessional lending arm of the World Bank, the International Development Association (IDA).
The World Bank is currently in negotiations with St Vincent and the Grenadines, which is contemplating joining the project in the very near future. St Kitts and Nevis and Antigua and Barbuda, two non-IDA countries, may in the future be eligible for World Bank financing, but are likely to participate initially on the basis on donor grants that are yet to be negotiated. The other OECS Member States of Anguilla, the BVI and Montserrat are considering the opportunities for participation in the project under similar terms.
The EGRIP project emerged from an increasingly strong articulated political will and determination for sub-regional cooperation, and in particular the realization that cooperation in the area of e-government can produce important outcomes. These include reduction in the cost of doing business; improvements in public sector efficiency, transparency and accountability; and greater sub-regional harmonization and integration. This project will therefore contribute to the current thrust towards the attainment of an OECS Economic Union.
By using a regional approach to promote integration, competitiveness, public sector efficiency and transparency, the OECS EGRIP will offer the countries in the region the benefits of economies of scale and technical synergies associated with the use of common policies and technologies for the delivery of government services to business entities, communities and private citizens in the OECS.
The project is structured in two phases and will run over a four year period. The first phase focuses on cross-sectoral e-government issues and on specific applications in the public finance area. There will also be an e-government in health pilot project. The second phase is expected to deepen the assistance provided under phase one, while expanding the programme to cover other sectors, in particular tourism, agriculture, health and education, among others that may emerge during the early stages of implementation of phase one.
The EGRIP project is being implemented by a Regional E-Government Unit (REGU), headquartered at the OECS Secretariat in St Lucia | | | | Reads : 813 | | | |
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