National ICT Strategic Plan Government of St Kitts and Nevis such activities. A landmark 1996 study by the World Bank identified the high price of communications as a barrier to the development of services exports in the Caribbean. At the time all but one country (Dominican Republic) had monopoly suppliers of telecommunications networks and services. The Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) and the Dominican Republic began the process of reform and sought financial support from the World Bank. Others such as Trinidad & Tobago, Haiti, Jamaica, and Guyana got support from other funding institutions including the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the World Bank, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Nine years after the conclusion of the WTO’s negotiations on basic telecommunications in February 1997 the process of sector reform has advanced in the whole region. Nearly all countries have put new legal and regulatory structures in place and have established independent regulators. Some have yet to complete the process. In spite of this the full benefits of reform still elude most Caribbean islands, this being particularly true in St Kitts as Nevis where residents continue to pay high prices and the unavailability of highly affordable telecommunications services continues to be a barrier to the development and growth of the ICT sector. Fixed and Mobile Lines The figures below show fixed and mobile telephone penetration in CARICOM and how St Kitts and Nevis compares. Ministry of Finance, Sustainable Development, Information and Technology November, 2006 16