“The government is mindful of the task that faces it in transitioning to a digital economy, bridging the digital divide and preparing The Bahamas to compete effectively in the global economy,” Minister of State for Finance, Senator James Smith said Wednesday.
Mr Smith told Senators that three E-Commerce Bills presently before that body, supported by a reliable telecommunications infrastructure, will assist the Bahamas in filling “niche” areas in the world of international finance, and many other areas.
He said that realization of the government’s ‘digital agenda’ would permit The Bahamas to participate actively in the global economy through the promotion of electronic applications in commerce, government, health, education, and a variety of other fields.
But the main factor needed to realise these opportunities is the provision of high speed, reliable and affordable broadband capacity, on which the government has placed high priority, Mr Smith said.
To this end, he noted, the Tenders Commission is now in the process of evaluating preliminary bids submitted in the privatisation exercise for the Bahamas Telecommunications Company, which is a significant milestone when compared with similar efforts underway in the region.
With an improved telecommunications system, and passage of the enabling E-commerce legislation, Mr Smith outlined, several opportunities will become available, through: the support of corporate and financial industries, in which The Bahamas has traditionally excelled; the provision of data centres, call centres, hosting facilities and fulfilment centres, especially in Grand Bahama; and as a financial processing and payments gateway for on-line companies.
“These are obvious niche areas which The Bahamas can concentrate on developing, having regard to its capabilities as a service-based economy,” Minister Smith said.
With respect to the provision of merchant accounts for online transactions, he continued, it is recognised that it is not easy to estimate demand for underlying support systems in the Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) arena, particularly where the local environment has little or no experience of the potential benefits.
“We also recognise and accept that this creates risk for investors who apply models to calculate their return on investments using assumptions that may have proved adequate in the more advanced ICT countries,” he told Senators.
“Sentiments that embody this observation have been expressed repeatedly within the banking community as a rationale for not, thus far, introducing the necessary policies and systems that would allow payment settlement in Bahamian dollars into a Bahamian account and related merchant account services,” he said.
Successful E-businesses are essentially those that have expanded globally, Mr Smith observed, noting that such expansion has not been restricted to simply broadening a customer base, but has significantly involved corporate structuring that produces the greatest return on shareholder investment.
“These approaches and services are completely familiar to The Bahamas, because it has been the foundation of a very successful and sustained financial services industry,” Mr Smith said. “The banking system has been the pillar upon which this industry has thrived.”
And, “In order to maintain competitive viability in the global market, as has been done by Bermuda, Cayman Islands, and of course the major on-shore financial centres, the delivery of services, including on-line settlement of payments locally will be expected to meet international standards,” Minister Smith noted.
But, he said, a key platform for advancing the digital agenda involves enabling financial processes that provide the ease, efficiency and seamlessness that an on-line global market has come to expect.
The Bills being debated, Mr Smith stated, are designed to assist in the expansion of the use of information and communications technology across all sectors of the society in order to improve efficiencies, lower costs and increase productivity.
The Bahamas is getting ready to take advantage of a variety of opportunities that will become available once E-commerce legislation is passed, he concluded.
By Keva Lightbourne, The Nassau Guardian
