National ICT Strategic Plan Government of St Kitts and Nevis information technology and e-commerce, offers greater opportunities to Kittitian and Nevisian businesses and consumers through reductions in transaction costs and prices. 7. Business innovation: The increasing diversity of market requirements presents new opportunities for business innovation and an expansion in production capacity. 8. Access to employment overseas: Globalisation, trade liberalization and the formation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy will create greater opportunities for Kittitians and Nevisians nationals to access employment overseas. 9. Enhanced capacity to accelerate St Kitts and Nevis’ human resource development thrust: A greater opportunity exists to use diplomatic and economic relations to develop St Kitts and Nevis’ human resources. There is also the opportunity to develop the human resources through the enhanced capacity to use highly developed telecommunication networks and information technology to access and encourage distance or home-based learning/training. Weaknesses 1. Vulnerability: The Kittitan and Nevisian economy possesses the defining characteristics of Small Island Developing States (SIDS), which make it especially vulnerable to external events. These special and peculiar structural and institutional characteristics impact on our macroeconomic fundamentals, economic sectors and individual units in the society. These characteristics also impact structurally on the process of economic growth, constrain our ability to compete and limit our capacity and speed to undertake adjustment and transformation in the structure of the economy. The most serious vulnerabilities for St Kitts and Nevis are: (a) Exposure to hurricanes. (b) Limited land and natural resource base. (c) A fragile marine ecosystem. (d) Limited economic diversification and a high degree of economic openness, with foreign trade accounting for more than two-thirds of GDP. Ministry of Finance, Sustainable Development, Information and Technology November, 2006 11