26 January 2016 - Business View Caribbean
ing to stand on long lines. He would like to “improve
our healthcare system and take full advantage of the
tremendous benefits that will be accorded to the Vir-
gin Islands under the changes that have been adopted
under the Affordable Care Act, where the government
is responsible for paying healthcare costs of those who
are either uninsured, underinsured, or who simply don’t
have the ability to pay.” In addition, he seeks changes
in the Islands’ educational system: “Understand that
more than 60 percent of our public school graduates
that are attending the University of the Virgin Islands
are on skills courses, meaning they are struggling on is-
sues of basic reading, math, and writing,” he laments.
“And when we look into the system, we see that less
than 30 percent of our third grade students are read-
ing and writing at a third grade level.”
Looking to a better future for the territory, Mapp sees
the Islands’ newly upgraded technology infrastructure
as a key part of his “catch-up” agenda. He explains:
“St. Croix, for example, has the largest bandwidth ca-
pacity in the Western Hemisphere except for New York/
New Jersey, which means that St. Croix possesses
more bandwidth capacity than Silicon Valley in Califor-
nia. The Virgin Islands, to its credit, took advantage of
the connectivity program sponsored under the Obama
administration and took about $140 million in federal
and local money to do a complete fiber-optic infrastruc-
ture system connecting the three islands. Under the
connected, infrastructure system, we are on a speed
of one gigabyte per second with the capacity to go to
ten gigabytes. So, the Virgin Islands can become the
technological hub of this hemisphere.”
In addition to its high-speed connectivity, Mapp also
touts the Virgin Islands’ tax structure as a powerful
incentive that can attract a new cadre of technology-
based businesses. “By being in Ireland, Microsoft and
Apple are paying a tax rate of about 12 percent,” he
says. “But they still have to keep the money abroad,
because if they bring the money into the U.S., they’ll be
taxed at a higher rate. But if that same operation was
