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New Budget Emphasizes Education and E-Business On May 31 the Hon. Sir William Allen, Minister of Finance, highlighted the budget for 2000/2001 for a joint session of Parliament. He spoke at length on the favorable economic situation in The Bahamas at this time. He reviewed government's goals and stated his assessment of the bright future which lies ahead for the country. The government is committed to assuring every Bahamian a good education and training, quality health care, decent housing, business and employment opportunities and a safe and healthy environment. The budget focuses closely on these goals. The recurrent expenditures are estimated at $949.1 million of which education will receive $178.6 million or 23 percent of the budget and health services will receive $142.3 million or 19 percent. The capital expenditures are estimated to be $128 million. This will be spent mainly for education, hospitals, police, defense and some for public corporations. The Bahamas government is emphasizing the immense new opportunities in the potential development as a center for e-business. This is a new era - the Information Age. The country needs to become a knowledge-based economy. Electronic commerce can bring about tremendous economic growth and productivity. For the past 50 years the economy has been based on tourism, financial services and the development of Freeport as a industrial center. The country has been successful resulting in the living standards for ordinary Bahamians comparing favourably with most developed countries. Government expects the economy to prosper and expand. The Ministry of Finance is working with IBM Canada to develop a Policy Document on e-business, setting out the potential of e-business for employment and income. The Document will suggest policies and legislation that this government can implement to make the Bahamas a center for e-business. Government is proceeding urgently with privatization of Batelco and liberalization of the communications sector within the Bahamas to support the idea of e-business. The country must have information technology and a competitive telecommunications infrastructure and must provide an environment where everyone is capable of using the new technologies and can learn new skills as technologies advance. The government goal is a networked society where business including government business is performed by the use of information and communications technologies. To facilitate this the government will provide free Internet access to all schools. Training in computers for adults will be initiated throughout the country. They plan to use classrooms after school hours for this adult training. Teachers will be trained first who in turn will become trainers in the adult program. Government is allocating $1 million for this program. |
