Broadband Initiative To Be Designated National Development Project

Minister of Science, Energy and Technology, Hon. Daryl Vaz, says he is seeking to have the National Broadband Initiative designated as a national development project to be funded by the Government.

“This is a signal to the bureaucracy that the procurement is to be treated as a priority. This designation will also signal to the country the full support of the project at the very apex of government,” Mr. Vaz said, noting that he will be making the request of Cabinet and Parliament.

The Minister, who was making his contribution to the 2021/22 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives on May 18, pointed out that the Ministry of Science, Energy and Technology has allocated $550 million from across its portfolio to support the initiative, which aims to have every household and every community connected to the Internet by 2025.

This, he said, is in addition to the $177.6 million to be provided by the World Bank/Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) and just over $80 million to be provided by GovNet and other existing information and communications technology (ICT) projects funded by the loan arrangements with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

Mr. Vaz further noted that earlier this month, Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, mandated several ministries through Cabinet to allocate resources to this national initiative, and following that instruction, “within days, we received written commitments from many ministries led by the Ministry of Education [Youth and Information] with an allocation of $250 million towards this initiative”.

The Minister stressed that the National Broadband Initiative must be seen as a strategic investment that will have an immediate, direct and long-term impact on the lives and livelihoods of the Jamaican people.

He noted that it should also be seen as an avenue to provide support for businesses, especially in the micro, small and medium-sized enterprise (MSME) sector to improve productivity and reduce cost and as a means of improving the efficiency of public services.

The National Broadband Initiative, which is expected to be implemented at a cost of US$237 million, is to be rolled out in two phases, with the first seeking to address the immediate and short-term needs to coordinate a coronavirus (COVID-19) ICT-related response to the public sector.

“The longer-term plan…will see us rolling out the Last Mile Initiative to achieve universal access. This is the overall plan expected to be completed by 2025,” Mr. Vaz said.

Objectives of the overall initiative are to achieve universal access; boost adoption and usage; improve quality and coverage of key services, such as health and education and, more broadly, public services; guarantee affordability; promote entrepreneurship and local content creation; create new business models; boost ICT exports, and increase competitiveness.

“The National Broadband Initiative is the biggest economic enabler during the pandemic and for the post-pandemic recovery. It is estimated that when fully implemented the national broadband backbone will contribute approximately $800 million annually to the economy,” Mr. Vaz said.