These figures, said the Ministry of Finance's legal adviser, Rowena Bethel, showed a 609.9 per cent growth in the amount of Bahamian Internet users between 2000 to 2005.
These figures were important as the business community moves towards further globalisation, and Ms Bethel said they reflected a wide spectrum of ages and backgrounds.
Jamaica has the highest number of Internet users in the Caribbean, with 1.67 million users, representing 39.6 per cent of the population.
Barbados is leading the way, in the Caribbean in terms of having an Internet-savvy population, with 56.2 per cent of its population using the web.
There are more than four million documented Internet users throughout the Caribbean, including some 500,000 in Haiti, 6 per cent of its population; to just 3,000 in Anguilla, or 22.8 per cent of its population.
"Education is very important as a weapon against a digital divide," said Ms Bethel.
"Without money you can't afford technology, and for governments of developing nations and their inhabitants alike, the digital divide has been very much about affordability.
"Wealthier nations that are home to many of the key IT industry players that have critical mass and higher levels of disposable income naturally can deploy the benefits of technology more readily."
To counter this inequity, the United Nations, the ITU, the World Bank and other multilateral agencies have devised programmes in conjunction with the private sector to assist developing nations leverage information and communications technology (ICT) as an important means of eradicating poverty.
"A number of Caribbean economies have benefited from some of the international programmes offered as a part of this assistance outreach," Ms Bethel said.
The Bahamian government has removed import duties on computer and computer-related equipment, making these more affordable for Bahamians from 1997-1998.
The introduction of competition in data services had also resulted in price reductions for Internet access to more acceptable levels.
Under the Telecommunications Sector Policy, the BTC network is to be upgraded and extended to facilitate the provision of Internet services to all inhabited settlements of ten households or more in the Bahamas.
"The proposed new fibre optic cable that will ring the Bahamas will immensely facilitate meeting this obligation," said Ms Bethel.
She stressed that education was about empowering persons to utilise information to suit their circumstances.
"As the developing world is all too keenly aware, a digital divide is a significant impediment to full integration into the global economy," she said.
"Further, those making decisions about the direction of that economy will do so without regard to the consequences for the digitally challenged. This places enormous strains on developing country governments to play catch up in an arena in which the global posts are shifting on a minute basis, and in which prolific rule-making is predicted on the environment of pervasive ICT integration beyond what many of these countries enjoy."
By A FELICITY INGRAHAM Tribune Business Reporter
