Haiti – Technology : Major Internet project for Haiti and the Dominican Republic

World Bank (WB) and the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB) proposes the creation of a submarine cable terminal (optical fiber) to facilitate access to the Dominican Republic and Haiti at the rest of the world.

The presentation of this project was made Tuesday in Santo Domingo [Dominican Republic] in the conclusions of the workshop “on the infrastructure and the connectivity of information technology for the local and regional development” by the experts Juan Navas-Sabater, telecommunications specialist, of the WB, and Silvana Rubino-Hallman of the IDB. This workshop was organized by the Dominican Institute of Telecommunications (Indotel), in collaboration with the IDB and the World Bank in collaboration with the Haitian Ministry of Labour and the National Council of Telecommunications (CONATEL) of Haiti.

In addition, the international experts have recommended the creation in both countries of a fiber optic Internet backbone at high density (Internet backbone) and the establishment of a virtual network to link among others: government agencies, schools, health centers and municipalities, this backbone will cross from South to North and from Port-au-Prince to Santo Domingo (West to East of the island) to be deployed on the Dominican territory.

The two banking institutions have announced their willingness to cooperate in an integrated solution for Haiti and the Dominican Republic and promoted the development of a legal and regulatory framework in both countries to boost the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industries, their competitiveness and promote the economic development.

Noting the growth of the mobile telephony, they lamented the inequality of the development between the two countries and the low penetration of broadband high-speed, the limitation of international access and the lack of alternative routes, both submarine as terrestrial. Reiterating the need to stimulate the economic development, the World Bank and IDB have recognized the will of the Dominican Republic and Haiti to work on joint projects.

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1 thought on “Haiti – Technology : Major Internet project for Haiti and the Dominican Republic

  1. If I were a member of the 200 families that run Haiti, I would be scared of this development, very scared indeed. While it would be great for the elites to surf the net with ease, the potential for change stemming from widespread access would be dangerous if too many of the poor gain access. The more knowledge they have access to, the more they would realize just how evil and screwed up the oligarchy running the country is. They might hope that knowing only Creole might put a damper on this access but, damn it, Google and Bing have come out with automatic translators from English to Creole!
    Plus, as we have seen in the Arab world, social networking can be the key to organizing against a possible President Martelly or whatever clown the powers that try to install. They could watch over the net China style but they would not have the resources that the Chinese have. Nope, the best way would be to make access to the Internet as expensive as they xan get away with. Even then , there might be ways around that as well. In a few years’ time, smart phones with internet access will be the norm. As I have said time after time, the oligarchy is going to have to give the very poor a much better deal or else they will be swept away by a Lavalas tidal wave or a group like Lavalas. They might be able to buy off some Lavalas leaders like Preval but they can’t hold back the teeming wretched class if they are mighty pissed off. You can’t kill them all and the Internet will empower the voiceless in unforeseen ways.

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