bvc_june2017

56 57 ner that’s important for the conduct of government,whether it’s the providing of security through proper policing, the development and growth of our infrastructure, understand- ing the dynamics of and the cost of energy; being able to attract business; and how to control and manage the cost of living in the Virgin Islands.” Mapp also believes that the Virgin Islands “missed the boat” by not devel- oping technologically and not training a workforce that could adapt to the ever smarter demands of employment outside of the service sector and the manufacturing industries. “We’re too far behind the curve,” he says. “The economy is not just tourism.We need to train people to adapt to change and to implement it. So, we have a broken system, a disjointed system; not a community that lacks capability, but a community with the pieces all over the place and a general belief that if we throw money at the problem it would be solved as opposed to looking at the core basis of the problem and resolving what’s generating the inefficiency - what’s generating the problem and solving it there.” So, Governor Mapp has many items on his to-do list: He wants his admin- istration to upgrade the delivery of government services by implementing online technologies so that, for example, people can pay their taxes or get THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES VIRGIN ISLANDS access to governmental documents without having to stand in long lines. He would like to “improve our healthcare system and take full advantage of the tremendous benefits that will be accorded to the Virgin 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 attend- ing the University of the Virgin Islands are on skills courses, meaning they are struggling on issues 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 reading and writing at a third grade level.” Looking to a better future for the territory, Mapp sees the Islands’ newly upgraded technol- ogy infrastructure as a key part of his “catch-up” agenda. He explains: “St. Croix, for example, has the largest bandwidth capacity in the Western Hemisphere except for New York/New Jersey, which means that St. Croix possesses more bandwidth capacity than Silicon Valley in Cal- ifornia. The Virgin Islands, to its credit, took advantage of the connectivity program spon-