St. Vincent and the Grenadines is among three Countries to receive financing from the World Bank for the Caribbean Regional Communications Infrastructure or CARCIP Program.
The World Bank Board of Executive Directors has approved additional financing of US$11.9 million, for St. Vincent and the Grenadines; Grenada and Saint Lucia.
Of the US$11.9 million approved on Thursday, US$4.8 million will be allocated to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Grenada will get 3 million US dollars and St. Lucia 4. Million US dollars.
World Bank Country Director for the Caribbean Tahseen Sayed, said this financing will allow the completion of the regional broadband network as well as training activities, business incubation loans, and implementation support.
The program has established Undersea Cables connecting the three countries and is rolling out terrestrial fiber optics.
More than half of the office buildings in all three islands have been connected to the internet and over half of schools are connected in two of the countries.
With this additional financing, schools in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines will be connected to internet services.
Key results include increasing access to regional broadband networks and helping develop an Information and Communications Technology (ICT)-enabled services industry.
The program was developed as part of the Caribbean region ICT strategy – the CARICOM Digital Agenda 2025 – which was designed to address the challenges of a fragmented market and uneven distribution of resources in this sector.
