2019/20 Budget Communication Final Budget Communication | Page 43

Mr. Speaker, among the Bills being presented today for the consideration of this
Honorable House is the resolution to approve the $14.6 million loan with the Caribbean
Development Bank to fund this project. The Government will provide direct counterpart funding
in the amount of $2.4 million for the full project value of $17 million. BPL will serve as the
executing agency for this project.
Mr. Speaker,
The House will note that this Budget also makes provision for the newly expanded
Department of Transformation and Digitization under Head 73 from what was formerly the
Department of Information Technology. Together with its allocation in the Capital Budget, this
department will receive additional allocations of some $15 million. Some of this incremental
increase is due to the fact that IT related support services are being consolidated under this agency.
However, a substantial portion of this sum is being allocated for the roll out of the government's
digital transformation strategy.
Within the coming fiscal year, the initial roll out of this strategy promises substantial
improvements for things like passport renewals, driver’s license renewals and verification of
personal and company information from the Registrar General's Department. These initial small
steps will have a profoundly positive impact on the lives of citizens. It will remove so much of the
unnecessary stress and aggravation that citizens have suffered for years, but for which no solutions
were ever implemented. But it falls to this Administration to do something about it. And that we
shall.
Much more will be said about the plans for the Digitization project during the Budget
Debate.
iii.
Accession to the World Trade Organization
Negotiations for our accession to the WTO continued throughout the fiscal year,
generating—as it should—quite a bit of interest on how it will impact our economy. In short, I
will reiterate here that this Government is committed first to Bahamian citizens, and ensuring that
in every decision that we make, their best interests are considered in a way that is economically
consistent with our objectives. The Bahamas’ initial Goods and Services Offer was presented
earlier this year, which included all the proposed reductions in duty rates for imports. By the end
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