Mr. Chastanet speaks of the challenges and successes of the past year.
Prime Minister Hon. Allen Chastanet, during his Budget Address on April 3, provided an update on the six key areas for sustainable economic growth and social advancement, that were identified for the 2017 budget cycle.
When the prime minister presented the 2017 budget address, he indicated that over the next four years, the Government of Saint Lucia would be directing efforts toward creating sustainable employment, re-engineering social services, reforming government, improving security and justice, building capacity in renewable energy, and adapting to climate change.
During the delivery of the Budget Address for the financial year 2018, before proceeding with the government’s agenda for the new fiscal year, he provided a progress report on those six key areas.
“I am encouraged that the unemployment rate has declined,” he said. “Even though we are by no means satisfied with the numbers, we have achieved success in providing more jobs. From a peak of 24.4 percent in 2014, unemployment dropped to 21.3 percent by the end of 2016 and declined further to 20.2 percent in 2017. Youth unemployment remains a stubborn challenge at 38.5 percent, but we are going to take steps in this financial year to launch a major assault on creating new jobs for our young people.”
The prime minister also provided details on the other key areas.
Social Services: Having reviewed the system, our efforts this year will be concentrated on establishing the appropriate infrastructure for this social protection system. It will establish and track who the vulnerable are, the range of support needed and provided, and their overall status and progress. The appropriate software to capture data on the above areas has been identified. With such information we will now be better placed to overhaul our current system of Social Services with one that is information based, administered at the local level and better equipped to accurately quantify the resources required to assist the vulnerable and those most in need.
Reforming Government: There is no doubt that an agile and responsive public service can make a significant contribution to economic growth and national development. In this Information Age, the transformation of the bureaucracy to meet the expectations of the business community, and all Saint Lucians remains a challenge, an imperative and an important goal of my government. We have made progress in the following areas during the last year: an assessment of e-government initiatives has been completed and services have been prioritized for entry to the shared services platform based on their impact on government business; the digitization of government records has been ongoing for some time now and will continue. In order to complement government’s e-commerce strategy and to reduce the digital divide between rural and urban areas, as promised in our manifesto, I am especially proud to report that the installation of the wireless internet backbone for the Government Island-wide Network or GINet will be completed by mid-April, with the assistance of the Government of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Phase two of the project will allow schools, communities, government facilities and the general public in Castries, Micoud, Vieux Fort, Canaries and Dennery to be “connected” at low or no cost. This will provide access to the internet to young and old alike and help to improve overall productivity.
Improving Security and Justice: Considerable planning has been undertaken to improve the delivery of justice and policing services over the past year. Our initiatives to finance new infrastructure for the judiciary and police are in the final stages of completion and the Police Force has undertaken a comprehensive review of its operations and has presented concrete operational and social programmes to reduce crime in Saint Lucia. I will elaborate on these a little later in my presentation.
In the interim the Police Force has been provided with a fleet of 15 new vehicles and 6 motorcycles and the Forensic Lab was re-opened to help improve investigative capacity.
Renewable Energy: There have been important gains in the renewable energy sector over the past year. In its bid to increase the uptake of solar photovoltaic systems, The National Utility Regulatory Commission published the procedure for connecting Solar Photovoltaic Systems to the national electricity grid. This has simplified the application process with a resulting increase of 149 kW of electricity generated from the sun.
Climate Change: The effects of climate change and its mitigation must be made real to Saint Lucians beyond the horrific images of hurricane ravaged Barbuda, Dominica and Tortola that we saw last year. In an effort to bring mitigation closer to home, a pilot financing mechanism has been introduced to promote increased climate resilience under a Climate Adaptation Financing Facility or CAFF.
For the 2018 budget cycle, the Government of Saint Lucia will be concentrating on four key areas which the prime minister said is critical in positioning Saint Lucia and Saint Lucians to maximize growth potential. These include investing in the human resource, upgrading physical infrastructure, improving public sector efficiency and managing the cost of debt.
