World Bank Approves $75m To Assist Dominica With Digital Economy

The World Bank has approved seventy-five million dollars for the Government of Dominica to assist with the realization of the Digital Economy.

Minister for the Digital Economy, Honourable Cassani Laville said transformation to the digital economy is going to change the way in which business is conducted in Dominica.

The Dominica Labour Party manifesto in 2019 promised a ‘Dynamic Dominica.’ Following the 2019 elections, a Ministry of Digital Economy was introduced to be in sync with the rapid way in which the world has been utilizing modern technology.

Minister Laville spoke of some of the measures which will be implemented through these funds.

‘There is a regional component of this project that is heavily based on cyber security and telecommunications; and we are not drawing down on our 20th million component for that in terms of revising and reviewing legislation and so forth on cyber security or sharing information and so on. There is a component for health, there is a component for education, for travel facilitation, for tourism; there are attendant benefits for businesses, for young entrepreneurs, for education, for support to the private sector, for E-Government, for digitization and digitalization. So there are tremendous benefits across the board to see that transformation of the way that we conduct business,’ Minister Laville stated.

Minister Laville says the digital economy will reduce the cost of transactions for citizens.

‘The cost of transactions through the internet is vastly reduced. People wait for Christmas time or Carnival time to come down and physically go to the registry. We are going to see that change drastically. We are going to have someone be able to access online platforms and actually pay for a birth certificate in a matter of hours, and that is the type of revolution that we want to see. We want to see the transactional cost being reduced significantly,’ the Minister noted.

The minister says with the digital economy the way of lives of individuals will be transformed significantly.

‘We are going to see travel facilitation with tourism transformed. We are going to find that businesses are able to access greater markets, and we are not only restricted by the numbers in Dominica but we are going to see that we can access the six billion people around the world. So there are so many attendant benefits to transforming to the digital economy and we are excited about it in Dominica and I look forward to the day of us leading the way in our transformation process,’ Minister Laville added.
Source: Government of the Commonwealth of Dominica