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Contact:
Claudia Monlouis
Tuesday, May 06, 2003 - The government and people of St. Lucia are
continuing to benefit handsomely, from the European Union‘s Special Framework
for Assistance Programme (SFA). On Monday, Prime Minister and Minister for
Finance, Honourable Dr. Kenny Anthony and EU Ambassador, John Caloghirou, signed
the documents to formally release 8.8 million Euros (EC$25 million).
Dr. Anthony told the Ambassador that, foreign assistance is only meaningful when
it positively impacts on the lives of people. “I have said before and I want to
reiterate that ultimately assistance from foreign countries must be judged on
whether to improve the quality of life and here its not just an issue of
sustainability, but whether there is evidence to say that lives have been
changed, lives have been altered or otherwise,” said Prime Minister Anthony.
Dr. Anthony credited the EU for having changed lives, by funding the
implementation of programmes which directly assisted displaced farmers, among
others.
Caloghirou gave the assurance that in the European Union’s view, St. Lucia’s SFA
programme is a cut above the rest and is regarded as its flagship programme
which the EU hopes to use as a model for other ACP countries.
“It is important to know that it took a lot of leadership, from the government
to take decisions. It took a lot of work from the people in the EDF /PMCU under
the leadership of Mr. Pierre and those efforts have now come to a point where we
have attained a level of commitment and a level of implementation which is the
pride of the sub-region,” remarked Ambassador Caloghirou.
The fourth allocation in the Special Framework for Assistance Programme will go
towards economic diversification, social recovery and the monitoring and
evaluation of programmes.
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