St Lucian Prime Minister signs contract with Hosting365
Irish technology company selected as IT Infrastructure Partner for Caribbean Island
St Lucian Prime Minister, The Honourable Kenny Davis Anthony was in Dublin today to witness the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between his government and Hosting365. Signatories to the MOU included Wayne Vitalis, CEO of the St Lucian National Development Corporation (NDC), Michael Chastanet, chairman of the NDC and Stephen McCarron, managing director of Hosting365. The MOU covers a broad agreement in which Hosting365 will provide technology, engineers and training to the government of St Lucia. The agreement looks to bring the Caribbean island up to the 21st century in terms of its IT infrastructure.
Prime Minister Anthony said: “As a small island nation we are keen to exploit our geographical location to create a knowledge based economy. We have witnessed the economic growth of Ireland over the past ten years and wish to emulate that success. Step one in this ambition is to install a world class IT infrastructure and we are delighted to work with Hosting365 to achieve this.”
St Lucia already boasts a fibre circuit at the perimeter of the island laid by local electrical supplier, Lucelec. However, the island is very much dominated by one telecommunications carrier which has a monopoly over local and international calls. Internet penetration is also low but this reflects current GDP which is based predominantly on agriculture and to a lesser extent tourism.
McCarron explains: “St Lucia is where Ireland was fifteen years ago in terms of technical monopolies and lack of competition. The St Lucian government, however, has seized the opportunity to move ahead dramatically by investing in its IT infrastructure. Their vision is to create a knowledge economy to attract overseas investment in terms of jobs and business. Our role is to build the tools to support that ambition.”
St Lucia’s relationship with the Irish has developed in recent years and has been helped in no small way by what McCarron calls the ‘Denis O’Brien’ effect. “Denis has brought welcome competition to the telecommunications sector in the Caribbean through his Digicell company,” says McCarron. “The combination of his company and its ‘can-do’ attitude locally has made Denis a great ambassador for the Irish. Without doubt it has made our introduction much easier.”
Other Irish entrepreneurs to be attracted to this island paradise include The Premier Group, a property development company, which is embarked in a multimillion dollar resort development called Sapphire Cove on the north of the island.
About St Lucia
The island, with its fine natural harbor at Castries, was contested between England and France throughout the 17th and early 18th centuries (changing possession 14 times); it was finally ceded to the UK in 1814. Self-government was granted in 1967 and independence in 1979. With a population of just over 160,000, the main GDP comes from bananas (80%) and the remainder from tourism. For more see http://www.stlucia.gov.lc
About Hosting365.ie
Hosting365.ie is dedicated to providing the highest levels of quality and service in the highly specialised area of Internet hosting. It provides a full range of services from shared hosting to dedicated servers and enterprise solutions and have been providing hosting services in Ireland since 1997.
For more information please contact
Dan King Hosting 365 1800 365 965
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