Canaries To Have Free Wi-Fi!

[dropcap]I[/dropcap] was hopeful last year when trying to organise a STAR-sponsored essay competition. I thought it would have been encouraging to parents and students to purposefully seek out a newspaper and read it, even just for one issue. I was even more sanguine that aspiring, young writers would participate. And so they did. There were competitors from communities of which I was previously unaware. But unfortunately, part of the criteria was that students had to submit their essays via email and so there were even more wishful writers who, although willing to participate, did not have access to the Internet or computers. Some teachers and parents struggled to send as many submissions as possible on their behalf but others just couldn’t.

Of course, next time we will be more considerate.

The STAR Businessweek recently reported on the expectations of the Government Information Network (GINet) of which the Embassy of the Republic of China, Taiwan and the Government of Saint Lucia launched the first installment on Wednesday in Canaries. Esther Bousquet, who delivered the opening remarks as permanent secretary in the Department of Public service, noted: “GINet is meant to address the problem of the urban and rural digital divide and low home Internet penetration rate.”

On behalf of the prime minister, Stephenson King underscored the need to bridge the gap in the digital divide.  “The question is: Why should anyone in the north have more accessibility to Internet than someone in the south or east or west, or from Canaries?” Quoting Barack Obama, he addressed his own question: “The internet is not a luxury, but a necessity.” Presently free Wi-Fi access is available to the community of Canaries from the Old Church Building, which is expected to become an art and culture gallery in the coming months. Both the Internet service and gallery coincide with the Village Tourism initiative endorsed by the prime minister in his 2018/2019 budget address by investing in infrastructure and the people of communities.

Mr. Domnic Fedee, the Minister for Tourism and parliamentary representative for Anse la Raye and Canaries, proudly celebrated with the community the fact that Canaries will be the first Wi-Fi village, not Rodney Bay or Castries. “I believe that Taiwan is the most significant diplomatic friend that Saint Lucia has had in the last twenty years,” he said, with his eye on the Taiwanise presence. “Your friendship is felt in our communities.”

The Taiwanese government contributed almost US$4 million, save for the $0.72 million provided by the Saint Lucian government, for GINet. The embassy was also able to provide the assistance of information and technology professionals to work on the project.

Residents who attended the launch testified to connecting their devices as soon as it was available, while students from the Canaries Primary School were elated to be included in the proceedings.

Esther Bosquet assured, “Children from rural areas will have access to the Internet to make more effective use of those devices for educational purposes.” This is just one aspect of GINet which also aims to satisfy the G20 Summit in Germany last year which campaigned for global fast Internet by 2025.

Concerning the latter, Ambassador Douglas Shen was happy to announce that, “Saint Lucia is moving steadily toward that goal”. He explained that GINet will help Saint Lucia remain competitive and “keep local businesses connected to their global customers”.

From Canaries, GINet will be launched in Micoud, Vieux Fort, Dennery and Castries in the coming weeks and ultimately seventy wireless access points will be implemented around the island.