National Consultation on the Economy at which the National Adaptation Strategy was
released. (Photo by Erasmus Williams)
BASSETERRE, St Kitts: As the St Kitts-Nevis Labour Government implements its National Adaptation Strategy, which is aimed at transforming the economy into a well diversified, competitive, service-oriented economy, it will become critical that the people are further empowered to play leading roles in the adaptation process and in the new economy.
St Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Dr Denzil Douglas said the proud young people must be empowered by catering specifically to their needs in the allocation of resources and in all aspects of the social and economic life of this progressive nation.
“We must also empower the former sugar workers and give them the confidence to march out from the canefields and the sugar factory into the new and emerging sectors of our economy to earn a living for themselves and to take full advantage of wealth creation opportunities,” said Douglas.
He announced that as part of the empowerment process, the government has been fine tuning the education system to give greater focus to vocational and skills training of relevance to enterprises, and to ensure that a much larger percentage of the students successfully leave school with the academic or technical qualifications required for the workplace or for further studies.
“We also intend to give our people, including our young people and former sugar workers, greater access to the land, money and technical assistance they require to establish businesses and to create new sources of income for themselves,” said Douglas, who is also the Minister of Finance.
He said his Government will continue to collaborate with the Development Bank and the Stanford Group of Companies so that the they will have access to the Empowerment Fund of $10 million.
Douglas said interested persons will be able to benefit in establishing small and micro-businesses or in growing their businesses.
He said the Investment Promotion Agency, which is scheduled to commence operations early in this year, will not only promote domestic and foreign investment, but it will also provide technical assistance to small and medium enterprises.