THE HAGUE – The Dutch government has unveiled a broad digital-infrastructure agenda for the Caribbean islands, aiming to reduce vulnerabilities in telecommunications, strengthen cybersecurity, and improve access to reliable internet—an issue that has long hindered economic development in the region. The plans are outlined in the latest parliamentary progress report on economic development and self-reliance.
A central component is the CELIA subsea fiber-optic cable, scheduled for completion in 2027. The cable will directly connect Saba, St. Eustatius, St. Maarten, Curaçao and Aruba to a modernized network that boosts bandwidth, redundancy and cybersecurity. Bonaire’s connection is still under negotiation but remains a priority due to the island’s growing reliance on cloud services and digital learning platforms.
The government warns that current telecommunications infrastructure across the Caribbean is not adequately resilient. Extreme weather, outages and cybercrime pose increasing risks. The Netherlands is working with telecom regulators and local operators to ensure diversified routing, improved data-storage protocols, and better oversight.
A new “digital readiness audit” for each island is underway, identifying weak points in IT governance, emergency response, data protection and public-sector digital services. Beginning in mid-2026 the islands will receive targeted technical assistance to update legislation on data privacy, critical-infrastructure protection and digital consumer rights.
These improvements are essential not only for digital transformation, the report states, but also for enabling e-government services, attracting investors, and supporting a more resilient regional economy.