Further, the Programme will contain a Government On-line initiative and a Process ReDesign initiative. The scope of both these initiatives will be heavily dependent on the An Internet exchange point (IX or IXP) is a physical infrastructure that allows different Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to exchange Internet traffic between their networks (autonomous systems) by means of mutual peering agreements, which allow traffic to be exchanged without cost. IXPs reduce the portion of an ISP's traffic which must be delivered via their upstream transit providers, thereby reducing the average per-bit delivery cost of their service. Furthermore, the increased number of paths learned through the IXP improves routing efficiency and fault tolerance. resources available and the level of support for transformation of the public sector through the strategic use of ICT. The shared connectivity infrastructure or egovernment backbone will have several Projects, namely Standards and Policies, Shared Services, It should be noted that this area of focus is central government and excludes health, education, agriculture etc which were special areas of focus in their own right. Communications Infrastructure and a Government Portal. The Standards and Policies Project will cover a range of initiatives, in particular, the shared infrastructure usage, but also procurement and use of ICT within the public sector. It will cover areas such as data and information management, interconnectivity and interoperability, security, web standards, use of open source software, and standardisation of technology. The Shared Services Project will focus on determining what services are best provided across the backbone to support all of government. This would include knowledge management including email, Internet, Intranet, VOIP, collocation of servers, use of SANs, and ASP operations. The Communications Infrastructure initiative will extend and strengthen the Intranet that is being currently implemented. It will include the provision of firewalls, network management, load-sharing facilities, and enhanced bandwidth to ensure that all of government can be supported in a safe, secure manner while carrying the required digital traffic. The use of a single point of entry via the Internet to all of government, or a Portal Project will be implemented as part of this Programme. The Portal project will include standards necessary for its success, including look and feel standards to maintenance and support issues. The central SVG Portal will be linked and integrated with the Agriculture, Tourism, Education and Community Development Portal. In fact, synergies and cost sharing should be pursued in moving forward with these initiatives. The Government On-line initiative is a Programme in itself and will likely run for many years, depending on the resources available. This programme focuses on making all relevant government information available on-line and will make use of the Portal infrastructure discussed previously. It will involve the careful consideration of the information needs of all St. Vincent & the Grenadines National ICT Strategy and Action Plan P a g e | 64 stakeholders, including citizens, businesses, visitors and employees, and obtaining and organising that information in an easy-tounderstand, easy-to-access format on the Portal. The initial focus should be on information most The increased number of paths learned through an IXP improves routing efficiency and fault-tolerance for participants and renders participants far more resilient to international cable failures. needed by the stakeholders irrespective of the ministry or agency from which it is obtained. In parallel with putting information on-line, SVG must move to placing key services on-line wherever appropriate and cost-effective. Again, stakeholders must be consulted to determine the priorities, and the infrastructure required to achieve on-line service provisioning must be determined. The services that are normally prioritised include births, deaths, and marriages, the business registry, taxes, national identification, and passports. During the life of this Plan, the key services should be determined and the most common services placed on-line in a secure and accessible manner. This initiative should look at all service delivery channels including the provision of information via the telephone. This will require a welldesigned call centre which is equipped to handle all standard or most frequently asked service related questions from citizens. This government on-line initiative will build on the current ICT investments across government, including SIGTAX, SMARTSTREAM and ASYCUDA. Investments in ICT, without a commensurate review of business processes, are often of limited value. Government, through the Business Process