Govt, C&W Agree On Liberalisation Timetable - March 6, 2001

By Earl Bousquet 

This past week Cable & Wireless withdrew its threat to leave St. Lucia, the government got top marks for its handling of the economy and the Prime Minister sent a strong and clear message to Sir John Compton for the upcoming general elections.

                Cable & Wireless and OECS negotiating teams met in St. Kitts and Nevis for a second time in two weeks to hammer out an agreement for deregulation of the telecommunications sector in the Eastern Caribbean.

Under the chairmanship of the St. Kitts & Nevis Prime Minister Dr Denzil Douglas, the two sides agreed on a timetable for transition to a liberalised environment that will last no less than 12 and no more than 18 months.

Attorney General Senator Petrus Compton and Communications & Works Minister Senator Calixte George both attended the talks, coming out of which the company will have six months to apply for a new license, during which time the Eastern Caribbean Telecommunications Authority (ECTEL) will also put a licensing board in place.

During the next year (beginning April 1), applications for new VSAT or other telecommunications licenses by potential service providers would be processed by ECTEL, while the two sides appointed a team to manage the transition to a liberalised telecommunications sector.

                Thus ended a series of negotiations that were sometimes loud and protracted, but which have produced most, if not all, of the results the OECS delegation had been seeking and went quite some way in setting the stage for addressing the concerns raised by the company.

                Cable & Wireless also sent two clear signals last week tht it would not be leaving the Caribbean as early as some feel by confirming its continuing sponsorship of West Indies cricket and handing over a US$60,000 cheque to Tourism Minister Menissa Rambally as the company’s contribution to sponsorship of the 10^th St. Lucia Jazz Festival in May.

                The St. Lucia Tourist Board continued to report progress on the island’s tourism front last week, indicating that tourism in St. Lucia was now no longer seasonal but year-round.

SLTB Chairman Desmond Skeete said the island also stood to gain from a recent promotional tour of the USA by a delegation led by the Tourism Minister. He noted this was coming on the heels of the tremendous growth on tourism arrivals under the current government’s watch, which had “exploded” from 300,000 in 1996 to over 700,000 in 2000.

                There was also good news about the economy this past week, with the East Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) giving the government top marks for its handling of the transitional phase from bananas to tourism.

The region’s premiere banking institution said the island now had a “stable and sound economic base.” It also acknowledged the economy was in transition and said it was well poised to continue growth.

                Prime Minister Anthony said the report mirrored much of what he had been saying earlier about the transitional stage of the national economy. He indicated that measures -- to be disclosed in his upcoming budget address – will further consolidate the transition of the economy “and build on the foundation that has been laid to achieve even better results in 2001.”

                The Windward Islands banana marketing company, WIBDECO, also had good news this past week, indicating the banana industry in the islands had fared better in 2000 than in 1999.

CEO Bernard Cornibert said last year the islands registered a 7% increase in production over the previous year, with St. Lucia continuing to lead the way in production..

                St. Lucia’s Ambasador to the United Nations Julian R. Hunte was last week appointed as the new Chairman of the UN Decolonisation Committee, which paves the way for independence for the world’s remaining colonies. The solemn ceremony installing the new chairman of the influential committee was also attended by UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan.

France signed a second agreement with the Castries City Council (CCC) for construction of more sidewalks around the city, in a ceremony at which Parliamentary in the Ministry of Local Government, Mr Jon Odlum, invited the French Ambassador to let St. Lucia know “how we can reciprocate.”

The review of the operations of the National Conservation Authority’ beach rangers unit was completed last week. The consultant, Mr Victor Poyotte, said he found “several grey areas”, including insufficient tourism training for the rangers.

The Fisheries Unit of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Marine Unit of the Police Force and the Soufriere Marine Management Authority announced new measures and guidelines for snorkeling and scuba diving. The new measures, according to Fisheries biologist Sarah George, were designed “with the safety of snorkelers and resource conservation in mind.”

Talk show host Claudius Francis came to the government’s defense earlier this week, denying a claim by UWP Leader Dr Morella Joseph that the Labour administration had amended the country’s pension laws to allow its MPs to qualify for pensions after only four years.

Mr Francis pointed out that contrary to the claim, the government had only amended the act a few years ago to make allowance for payment of proportionate compensation to the relatives of a parliamentarian who died in office. The rest of the act, he pointed out, remained as it was passed by the then UWP administration.

Prime Minister Anthony toured the Vieux Fort North constituency on Sunday and Monday last, visiting various communities and meeting citizens and farmers in the predominantly agricultural southern district. Accompanied by MP for the area, Mr Cecil Lay, several government ministers and technocrats, the PM asked and answered questions about government’s policies, while the MP was also questioned by his constituents about issues affecting them.

The Prime Minister left Castries Monday evening for a crucial meeting of the Board of Governors of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) to take place in Barbados.

Dr Anthony, who is the current chairman of the Board of Governors, will, among other things, preside over the election and appointment of a new President for the CDB to replace Sir Neville Nichols. (Guyanese-born economist Professor Compton Bourne was named as the one tipped for the job.)

However, all the above notwithstanding, the main item of interest on the part of the mainstream press this past week was the public exchange between Prime Minister Anthony and former Prime Minister Sir John Compton.

The Prime Minister had indicated at a public meeting of his ruling SLP last week that as far as he and his party were concerned, Sir John’s knighthood will not prevent him from being treated like any other opposition candidate at the next elections.

He also said that since Sir John had re-entered the political field, he would no longer be able to represent Caricom on missions to Haiti.

Sir John replied that he was “not the Prime Minister’s errand boy,” but acknowledged Dr Anthony had the authority to take the course of action he indicated.

The rest he left to the press…

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