The Bahamas Government has committed a “significant sum of money” to launch its new e-Government platform that will go live in July 2011. The platform revamps the public service, enhancing efficiency of operations and service delivery.

When govnet.bs launches, Bahamians will be able to pay business license fees, fines, real estate property taxes, renew drivers’ licenses and apply for business licenses online. Director of Information Technology June Collie said The Bahamas intends to catch up in e-government operations, following the same model as Singapore, which is now U.N. ranked 11th in e-Government development.

Ms. Collie says, “We feel that Singapore has a model that has really worked and improved the lives of their citizens. They are now a technology-driven economy and the government pushing e-Government in Singapore was the catalyst for that.” She feels The Bahamas is well positioned to adopt their model, learn from their lessons and apply their best practices; even positioning this nation to surpass some of the earlier regional implementations for e-Government.

Minister Laing adds, “The Bahamas’ special geographical lay out as an archipelago really makes e-Government perfect for us. We have to replicate so many things in order to deliver services in our Family Islands and an enhanced e-Government structure can help us do that so wonderfully.”