St. Kitts – Nevis ICT Stakeholders To Review New Laws

Government To Monitor Electronic Transactions

Basseterre, St. Kitts – Nevis
August 17, 2012 (SKNIS)

Stakeholders will give input on new rules that are being proposed to govern electronic transactions in St. Kitts and Nevis at an August 20 and 21 workshop.

Ophelia Blanchard, e-Government Services and Information Coordinator in the Department of Information Technology, told SKNIS that the consultation ““ to be held at the Ocean Terrace Inn ““ is part of the Federation’s involvement in the HIPCAR Project which speaks to “Enhancing Competitiveness in the Caribbean through the Harmonization of ICT Policies, Legislation and Regulatory Procedures.”

“The HIPCAR project is aimed at developing and promoting a harmonized approach to policies, legislation and regulations for the Information Society as well as human and institutional capacity building in the field of ICTs through a range of target training and knowledge sharing measures,” Ms. Blanchard stated. As such “the project will result in the creation of a policy, legal, and regulatory framework conducive to significant investments in ICT infrastructure and services.”

International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Consultant Gilberto Martins de Almeida, who has worked with the project since 2008, conducted a comparative analysis of local legislation with regional and international laws. He then compiled a list of recommendations to amend the Electronic Transaction Act No. 9 of 2011 which covers activities of e-Commerce, e-Filing of documents and e-Government Services or to be included in new draft regulations and/or policies.

Consultant Israel Mukasa will provide the local legal perspective when presenting on the recommendations and stakeholders will be expected to share their experiences and knowledge during discussions to help shape the new rules.

Ms. Blanchard revealed that participants from financial institutions, law enforcement, telecommunication firms, the bar association and the intellectual property field have been invited to the stakeholder consultations. This session is a follow up to a similar workshop held in May 2011.

HIPCAR was launched in Grenada in 2008. It is funded by the European Commission with ITU as the executing agency and the Caribbean Telecommunication Union as the project advisor. Beneficiary countries are Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti and Jamaica. St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago are also member countries.