Prime Minister King lobbies financial institutions on behalf of youth

Tuesday, April 13, 2010 – Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Honourable Stephenson King, has urged local banks and other financial institutions to do more to assist young people seeking to become home-owners and entrepreneurs.

The prime minister's call comes as Saint Lucia observes youth month.

He says as the future leaders of Saint Lucia, youth must be given the opportunities and support to lay their future foundation.

“Too often the windows of opportunity provided at the banking institutions are not flexible enough to give opportunities to enterprising young people who want to get into industry and business to enable them to access facilities and resources available at those banks.”

The prime minister also reiterated government’s commitment to providing necessary opportunities to develop youth and encourage them to participate in nation building.

Mr King says government’s commitment to youth development was further underscored with the recent allocation of seven million EC dollars to the Saint Lucia Development Bank (SLDB), for the start of the Youth Enterprise Equity Fund.

“That fund is to give young people the opportunity to access resources from the bank. Once they have an idea to get into business, they can receive funding to support the development and implementation of their ideas. I hope that other commercial banks will see this as encouragement to provide such windows of opportunity for our young people.”

Prime Minister King says the system must cater to, and support the areas of interests of all young people, to ensure that they do not fall through the cracks.

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