|
| |
Contact:
Rose Marie Harris
Wednesday, March 26, 2003 - The greatest challenge facing Saint Lucia
today is that of remaining competitive in this new era of trade liberalisation
and world wide economic recession. That’s according to Governor General, Dame
Pearlette Louisy, as she addressed Saint Lucians living in Toronto, Canada
earlier this month on the occasion of Saint Lucia’s 24th Anniversary of
Independence.
According to the Governor General, it was this concern which prompted the
establishment of the National Economic Council, an advisory body composed of
persons from the public and private sectors and non governmental organisations.
Dame Pearlette described the Council as a think tank for discussions on the key
economic and social challenges confronting the country and for recommending
realistic and cost effective measures aimed at responding successfully to these
challenges.
It is government’s expectation that a vision shared nationally would guide the
process of transforming the island’s economy over the next two decades; even
while realising that the European Union has given a deadline of 2006 to prepare
for open competition in the banana industry.
Saint Lucia’s strategic priority the governor general explained continues to be
the diversification of economic opportunities and activities to decrease
dependency on a single sector for foreign exchange earnings. It is for this
reason that the tourism industry has expanded into new areas like sports
tourism, festival tourism and heritage tourism. The strengthening of the
international financial services sector and the diversification of the
manufacturing sector, have been developed as priority areas for development.
To assist in this transformation and to create the enabling environment through
which
Saint Lucia’s private sector can become more competitive, government has been
funding a Private Sector Development Programme over the last three years. The
Governor General went on to inform the Saint Lucian gathering in Toronto that
support has been given through special tax and duty concessions to promote
development and investment in the southern and western parts of the island,
through technical assistance initiatives in the fields of product development
and human resource development, among others.
Other initiatives funded both by government and external agencies like the Small
Enterprise Development Unit of the Ministry of Commerce, the Saint Lucia Bureau
of Standards, the James Belgrave Micro Enterprise Development Fund and Canada’s
CEPEC – the Canadian Programme for Economic Competitiveness – are all geared
towards the generation of Saint Lucia’s sustainable economic development, growth
and stability.
|
