NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (May 09, 2018) — Mr. Quincy Prentice, Director of the Information Technology (IT) Department believes that the Nevis Island Administration (NIA) is at the forefront of implementing technologies that deliver effective services to the people of Nevis.
Mr. Prentice made the comment when delivering remarks at the Department’s 2nd annual Delta Dinner at Golden Rock Hotel on May 05, 2018. He pointed to the key areas of healthcare, security, education, service delivery, communications and energy in which the technologies are being implemented.
“The Nevis Island Government is leading from the front in the adoption of technologies in the execution of its mandate and delivery of services to its citizens. Technological solutions are currently being deployed in key areas,” he said.
In the area of healthcare, a Health Management Information System in conjunction with the Republic of China on Taiwan as well as Perinatal Information System and the Immunization database has been deployed. It is designed to give healthcare providers the tools needed to more effectively and accurately execute their tasks.
The Administration has invested in the area of security, in state-of-the-art fibre optic technology. It will be used to support the island-wide deployment of closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras to help to rid the island of the scourge of criminal activity through real time monitoring, improved situational awareness and greater forensic abilities of the security forces.
Mr. Prentice also explained that significant investment has also been made in the area of education and schools have been furnished with computer labs that will support further integration of technology into the delivery of the entire spectrum of subjects from Mathematics, to English, to Electronic Document Preparation and Management (EDPM) to Computer Science.
He said the integration will hopefully better prepare students on Nevis for the world of work by ensuring they are technologically-proficient irrespective of their career choice.
In the area of service delivery, he spoke of the Administration’s revamped website which makes information more readily available to various sectors of the community, as it seeks to improve governance through greater transparency.
Regarding Communication, Mr. Prentice spoke of the improvements already in place which has also been financially beneficial to the NIA.
“Through the use of fibre optic technology, a vastly improved communications infrastructure has been deployed throughout the NIA.
“This platform has served as the basis for the deployment of Voice over IP (VoIP) technology which is also positively impacting the delivery of services to the citizenry, while reducing the cost of communications for the NIA,” he said.
With respect to the area of Energy, he noted that the advancements being made in the energy sector will have a tremendous impact in providing the supporting infrastructure required to successfully adopt ICT’s on a larger scale.
“Not only is this in the form of ensuring a robust ICT infrastructure for our own use, however, the availability of inexpensive and clean renewable energy potentially opens up Nevis hosting an array of cloud computing services,” he said.