The Government of Jamaica/Inter-American Development Bank Information and Communication Technology Project (GOJ/IDB ICT PROJECT)
Website: http://www.iadb.org/exr/country/eng/jamaica/

The project consists of four components:

1. Strengthening of MCST

The first component will give support to the Ministry of Commerce Science and Technology, enabling the Ministry to continue to play a leading role in increasing Jamaica’s e-readiness, and to further enhance competition in Telecommunications. Technical assistance will be provided in areas such as project management and implementation. Assistance will also be provided to the Central Information Technology Office (CITO)

2. E-Government

The Second component will bring government fiscal and trade agencies on-line. Online payment of government related transactions (taxes) will be facilitated to improve the efficiency of the payment mechanism.

• General Consumption Tax
• Special Consumption Tax
• Corporate PAYE
• Education Tax

The Second phase will facilitate:

• National Insurance
• HEART
• Self Employed Persons (PAYE)

TRADE AGENCIES: Web enabling of

• Customs
• Trade Board
• E-Procurement
• Feasibility of an e-procurement system for Government.

E-Procurement:
 
Feasibility of an e-procurement system for Government. These phases will be the pilot for the process of change to a system in which most transactions undertaken between the citizen and government can be conducted on line. Fiscal Services will be the implementation partner for this component.

3. Community Outreach

Establishment of 60 sustainable telecentres. Towns with over 300 people will be prioritized in first 2 years. Funding to be provided by IDB for:

• Computers

• Printer

• UPS

• Software

• Networking hardware

Recurrent operating costs are to be provided by the community.

The sites will be selected based on proposals submitted by Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs)

4. Training

A scholarship programme will be developed to assist students pursuing ICT training programmes in specific institutions. The program will seek to provide a pool of qualified employees for prospective investors and will be guided by the needs of the industry.

Currently, we are working with HEART/NTA to streamline the human resource aspect of the project so that more persons are trained for the same amount of money. We are looking at different aspects of training to deal with persons as they are, for example, persons who have the know-how but no accreditation or those who know the theory but have no hands on training. HEART/NTA is now in the process of reviewing their programme.

Website Address: http://www.iadb.org/exr/country/eng/jamaica/