BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, SEPTEMBER 14TH 2012 (CUOPM) – Just days before celebrating the Federation’s 29th Anniversary of Independence, St. Kitts and Nevis re-launched its Government Portal - Gov.kn
In a statement at Friday’s Sitting of the St. Kitts and Nevis National Assembly, Minister of Technology the Hon. Glenn Phillip (Labour- St. Christopher 4) said it was important that this Government establishes a presence on the internet that allows the government to interact with its citizens and the world.
He told lawmakers and the nation via live radio and television broadcast, that the first efforts involved the assistance of “our Taiwan partners who have made significant contributions to the people of St. Kitts & Nevis, in the valuable area of Technology when we were at the stage of building and creating our own capabilities.
These contributions not only included the gove.kn portal, but also substantial ICT infrastructure in the form of the National ICT centre at which the Government was able to host the technical components which afforded the country the ability to have a presence on the internet.”
Mr. Phillip said the Government of Taiwan also provided the assistance of web developers and engineers to assist in the technology advancements.
“We are at a stage where our own people have developed the skills and ability to produce our own websites and manage our own web resources and presence. Both inside and outside of Government, we at the Ministry have seen a remarkable rise in web based enterprise and usage.
This is a rewarding fact of our development, of which the Government is proud as it feels that its long-term vision, as stated some years ago by the Right Honourable Prime Minister, Dr. Denzil L. Douglas for making St. Kitts-Nevis one of the most technologically empowered people in the Caribbean, is coming to fruition,” said Minister Phillip.
He pointed out that Government’s embrace of Technology and improved communications has resulted in tremendous growth in telecommunications and internet usage and very importantly, a rise in entrepreneurship, which is almost solely technology based.
Minister Phillip informed that a reset of the Government portal gov.kn has been undertaken by local experts and developers and replaces the original portal which was difficult to update, and did not fully capture all of what St. Kitts and Nevis offers and was simply in need of a refresh to meet the expectations of today’s users.
“We have sought to completely revamp gov.kn in its appearance and functionality, which in our opinion will bring quite a lot more information and provide extended online facilities to our citizens and all that are drawn to interact with our country via its web portal.
We think the new design is easier to use, more intuitive, professional, more functional; will provide more insight on the functioning of Government, is more up to date from a features standpoint, and unlike the earlier effort, will be a dynamic source of updated and exclusive information and online resources and tools, that will rival any Government site anywhere in the world,” he said.
Mr. Phillip said he expects to see substantial improvements in site rankings and the attention that is paid to this portal, bringing additional interest and interaction from citizen and visitors, and contributing to the growing interest in St. Kitts and Nevis as a centre for economic activity.
“The new site also embodies a number of enviable features, and, today we have released the first phase of the Government Portal – A beta Launch, which precedes the full launch of the Government Portal schedule for later this year. Our vision is to improve the level of our Government Portal to provide comprehensive information, more integrated services from all government departments and facilitate interactions between governments and citizens, businesses, investors, visitors, Diaspora, regional and international organizations,” said the Technology minister.
He told the nation that it was revamped to deliver public services through one national integrated portal that connects the whole of Government to better serve the citizens, investors, visitors and the Diasporas. Some information that can be accessed on the portal includes information about our the Federation of St. Kitts-Nevis, latest news, upcoming events, forms, documents, notices, government projects and initiatives, Government directory listing, our Culture and Heritage and incorporates social networking – as a means to connect to the citizens.
He said the new gov.kn portal already has websites for a number of specific departments which include: Citizenship by Investment Unit : http://www.ciu.gov.kn; Financial Services Regulatory Commission: http://www.fsrc.kn; Department of Youth Empowerment: http:// www.youth.gov.kn; St.Kitts-Nevis Accreditation Board: http://www.ab.gov.kn; National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA): http://www.nema.kn and the Financial Intelligence Unit: http://www.fiu.kn.
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