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Work Continues on an Integrated Export Strategy for St. Lucia


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Tuesday, March 09, 2004 - The Ministry of Commerce, Investment and Consumer Affairs has joined forces with the St. Lucia Chamber of Commerce Industry and Agriculture and other stakeholders, in an attempt to put in place an Integrated National Export Development Strategy for St. Lucia. The process, which has been underway for the past two-years, was taken one step further on Monday, 8th March 2004 with the staging of a national symposium at the Green Parrot Hotel situated at La Toc.

Addressing participants, who came from a wide cross section of the industrial and manufacturing sector, Executive Director of the Chamber Mr. Brian Louisy, said that the grouping remained convinced that one of the things impacting negatively on the local economy has been the slowdown in export. He pointed out that one could trace from as far back as the days of sugar, coal, bananas and tourism, St. Lucas’s export led growth.

This, he told his audience had changed not entirely due to a noticeable lack of export, but because “export-led growth was no longer sexy”. Mr. Louisy made it clear that the rational behind this latest initiative was to make export-led growth the theme and driving force behind St. Lucia’s future economic development. “This process, we are hoping will make such terms and ideas sexy once again so that people can buy into it”, said the Chamber’s long serving Executive Director.

The preparation of the strategy comes at an opportune time for St. Lucia, as the island through the Ministry of Commerce and Investment continues trade negotiations with groupings like the Caribbean Single Market and Economy, (CSME), the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and wider Europe.

Commerce and Investment Minister Honourable Philip J. Pierre said that given the changing face of trade the world over and its impacts on the local agriculture export market, new methodologies and modalities needed to be developed, if the country was to survive and remain competitive in this era of free trade.

St. Lucia he lamented, finds itself having to compete with countries that possess greater economies of scale, coupled with large and wide open spaces and relatively cheap labour. Such conditions he noted, had led to cheaper bananas flooding the world market and curtailing growth in the local banana sector. “We cannot lie down and die”, he told some of the country’s leading manufacturers at the one-day symposium.

As a remedy, the Commerce Minister indicated that the country needed to speed up its efforts at diversification, which in itself had given rise to initiatives leading to the development of a national export strategy. “We must find ways and means to make St. Lucia’s export competitive, placing them at an affordable price”, he said, noting that success on that front was contingent on the country’s ability to deal with the vast world market and the phenomenon of free trade.

Last year some 38% of St. Lucia’s manufacturing output, specifically food and beverage were exported, with officials hoping to up that figure significantly come the next five years. Monday’s exercise received assistance from the International Trade Centre (ITC) in the person of consultant Anton Said.
 

 


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