BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - ST. LUCIA’s Prime Minister Allen Chastanet, believes that “a tremendous amount of work” still needs to be done if the sub-region is to tackle critical issues that affect its people.
That announcement was made yesterday (Mar. 3) morning at the opening of the 64th Meeting of the OECS Authority in Basseterre, where Citizenship by Investment and Civil Aviation - among other areas - were up for discussion.
Chastanet pointed to education, healthcare, crime and climate change, as several of the issues that the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States need to work together to combat.
Addressing his first Heads of Government session at the OECS level, he questioned the economic stability of the people of the sub-region.
“Are we satisfied that all the citizens of the OECS enjoy world-class education? Are we satisfied that they all have access to proper health care? Are we all satisfied that we all can live in safety? Are we all satisfied that we have every opportunity for economic prosperity that the people so richly deserve?”
The Prime Minister suggested that for St. Lucia in particular, there is a tremendous amount of work left to be done, as is the case for other OECS territories.
Interest on debts, he noted, is “strangling” countries in the region. He indicated that these monies could otherwise be invested in the nations’ education systems, particularly after-school programmes or infrastructure development.
The St. Lucian PM indicated that many countries in the region have struggled to achieve consistent economic growth since the economic meltdown in 2008. He stressed that, “If we don’t bring back economic growth to this region, then it is going to make it very much difficult to implement some of the things that we would want to do.
“So that is the role of the OECS, from a solution perspective.”
