Youth development among St Lucia Development Bank key priority areas
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Youth development among St Lucia Development Bank key priority areas |
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Contact: Claudia Monlouis
Friday 23 September 2011 – Youth, the environment, and poverty alleviation, are three key strategic themes which will guide the investment of the Saint Lucia Development Bank to Saint Lucia for the next five years.
SLDB Managing Director Jean Francois Sonson says, the bank will continue to work with the young constituents and will continue to foster and finance their participation in the economic sectors of the country.
“The bank is painfully aware of the situation with young people and we need to address them. We also intend partnering with the Ministry of Agriculture will undertake a young farmers programme whereby the bank will undertake certain initiatives and the bank will also undertake certain initiatives. I do not want to pre-empt the bank because they too will be organizing a launch of this programme shortly but we will be involved integrally in funding these young people who will be going into agriculture.”
Sonson says the bank's five year plan will also place emphasis on young persons who wish to open their own business.
“We recognize as well that it is these young persons currently who will be the future entrepreneurs of Saint Lucia. So they have to be assisted. We are partnering with a number of agencies like OPSR, CARE, NSDC and so on in developing a number of programmes where we can mentor these young people, train them so they can get the necessary skills so they can actually create employment for themselves.”
Young people are being encouraged to approach the bank for discussions on how they can best take advantage of the services which have been designed to meet their needs. |
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