Last week, we began a discussion of the Government’s ICT programme which effectively commenced in 2010. There are three major components, namely: (a) the laying of 560 kilometers of fibre optic cables from Georgetown to Lethem; (b) the installation of the wireless and terrestrial network system from Moleson Creek to Anna Regina; and (c) the acquisition and distribution of 90,000 laptops to families in need of them. These components are interconnected since the objective is for high-speed internet access to flow from Brazil via the fibre optic cables and distributed along the coast through the network. This is to facilitate, among others, connectivity with government offices as well as with the laptops that would have been distributed. As stated by the former President in 2010, the intention was not to compete with GT&T which at the time was launching its own fibre optic cable out of Suriname and Trinidad.
The entire funding of $13.827 billion for the programme, equivalent to US$69.133 million, would have been exhausted as at 31 December 2014. However, there is no connectivity out of Brazil and therefore the objective of advancing “fully into e-government mode, hooking up our schools and our hospitals and our police stations and everything else so that we can deploy
