St. Lucian Delegation Returns from World Bank Meeting

October 13, 1998 - A team of senior government officials returned to the state over the weekend, from Washington D.C., having attended the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Government representatives from over 180 member countries attended the annual gathering of the world’s finance ministers. The opening session, which was addressed by US President Bill Clinton, considered major economic issues facing the developing world and the crisis of instability in global financial markets.

St. Lucia’s delegation to Washington was headed by the Prime Minister, Dr. Kenny Anthony, and included Minister for Commerce, Dr. Walter Francois, Permanent Secretary for Finance & Planning, Mr. Bernard La Corbiniere, and other senior government officials.

While in DC, the St. Lucia team held routine bi-lateral consultations with IMF and World Bank officials, concerning St. Lucia’s medium-term economic prospects. Officials of both institutions were impressed with St. Lucia’s progressive economic stabilization and restructuring programs and the focus of its public sector investment projects.

Specific projects discussed were St. Lucia’s Poverty Reduction Fund and a Disaster Mitigation Project to be financed by the World Bank. The final documents to activate a six million US dollar Telecommunications Reform Project were also signed. This project provides financial and technical resources to St. Lucia and four other OECS countries to modernize the management and regulation of their telecommunications sectors.

From Washington, Prime Minister Anthony travelled to Paris, to chair the UNESCO Focus on the Caribbean. While in Paris, Prime Minister Anthony met with Former UN Secretary - General Boutros Boutros-Ghali who is now head of La Francophonie of which St. Lucia is a member.

St. Lucia’s Prime Minister also met with the French Minister for Overseas Development Mr. Jean - Jacques Queyranne (kay ran). Following up on a recent Investors Forum hosted by St. Lucia, Dr. Anthony also received letters of commitment from a consortium of French investors expressing interest in various tourism and infrastructural development projects in the Vieux - Fort area.

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