November 13, 2000 - PM Says Economy Strengthened; CANA Announces National Front!

November 13, 2000

By Earl Bousquet - PM’s Press Secretary

Prime Minister Dr Kenny D. Anthony said this past week that the economy "is firmly set in the direction of tourism and services" and the Finance Ministry announced plans were well ahead for preparation of the 2001/2002 Budget.

Dr Anthony told Parliament last Tuesday that contrary to the claims of some political commentators, the economy was neither slowing down nor facing a downturn.

He said his administration has had to "massage the economy" in certain ways to ensure that it recovered from the serious losses of the past and withstood the shocks of the globalisation process.

He said his government was successfully managing the transition from what existed when it took office to a repositioning of the economy for further strengthening in the new environment.

Dr Anthony said the emphasis in repositioning of the economy continued to move from the lead role once played by bananas to a new leading role for tourism and financial services, while at the same encouraging local investment in construction to create more jobs and improve flow and circulation of money in the economy.

The Budget Section of the Ministry of Finance also announced this past week that it had completed three quarterly reviews as part of the budgetary preparations for next year.

It said mangers of government finances have been encouraged to be more prudent in handling of such finances while administrative measures were being taken to ascertain where and how to tighten fiscal expenditure.

The Budget Section said the Prime Minister had also invited several national organisations representing a wide cross section of the population to submit their comments on a wide range of issues related to budget policy direction.

While the Prime Minister was explaining what some economists pretend not to see, the nay-sayers continued to forecast economic doom and gloom while backroom political manoeuverings continued.

CANA and Hts/Radio 100’s Ernie Seon turned out to be the only journalist in St. Lucia selected by a group of "disaffected members" of both the SLP and the UWP to leak a story about a plan by those still faceless and nameless persons to form what he described as "a national front movement."

Tax Consultant Geoff Stewart (described by RCI’s Timothey Poleon as "one of the government’s fiercest critics" and who was among those line-up for the leadership of the UWP before its recent convention) has distanced himself from the plan reported by Seon. He said he hadn’t officially been approached, but he know of the plan and "it’s more than just a rumour. "

Lawyer Lorraine Williams, whose disaffection with the UWP is also very well known, said she too had heard of the plan, but had not been approached..

Not even the Star seemed able to find out what only Ernie Seon knew, but the paper reported Sir John Compton and Foreign Affairs Minister George Odlum were said to be involved. It recalled that Mr Odlum and Mr Compton were involved in a similar effort to create "a national front government" while the SLP was in office in 1982.

The article recalled that Mr Compton only reneged on certain agreements with "the Odlum faction" of the then Labour Party government after he been convinced so to do by the UWP’s then all-powerful Chairman Henry Giraudy.

Noting that the call for a government comprising "St. Lucia’s best brains" was one of the central planks of Mr Odlum’s reply to Prime Minister Anthony’s budget earlier this year, during which he roundly criticised his Cabinet colleaues and accused them of alienating the government and themselves from the people.

The Star noted that Mr Odlum was out of the country at the time but reported that the French Embassy had planned a special dinner in honour of the Foreign Affairs Minister, which the paper claimed "no other minister is prepared to talk about" on record.

But while Geoff Stewart distanced himself from Seon’s "national front government" initiative, he continued to earn his reputation as a fierce critic of the government.

As usual, he took issue with the government’s approach to fiscal management, saying it was allowing needed money to go to waste through such initiatives as the Property Tax Amnesty and the forgiveness of water debts from consumers that had been proving difficult or impossible to recover over he years.

He said government was letting those millions of dollars go to waste "while increasing the burden on those of us who are already paying taxes."

In banana matters last week, Ranju Farms issued a release to counter the negative publicity that surrounded it in the fallout over Pat Joseph’s resignation as Chairman of the SLBC. (The farm had been the subject of attacks by vandals after HTS/Radio 100 reported that it in fact belonged to Pat Joseph and that $1.5 million had been transferred to its account from the SLBC while Mr Joseph served as Executive Chairman.)

Ranju Farms, which is in fact a subsidiary of the SLBC and in which Mr Joseph has no shares, is the largest contributor to the volume of bananas exported from St. Lucia weekly and was established to replace the former Dennery Farmco after the latter continued to incur losses.

Ranju reported it was now totally out of debt and "operating in the black."

Meanwhile, the banana industry last week continued to attract the attention of various contenders who want to take over where Pat Joseph left off.

Former SLBC director Fred Flood indicated last week he was willing to return to the nation’s largest banana company in the aftermath of Pat Joseph’s exit.

Flood, who heads the breakaway Banana Salvation Marketing Company says he and others are prepared o return to the SLBC to make their skills available "in light of the inexperience of those offering themselves for leadership of the SLBC at the next shareholders meeting."

Former UWP Agriculture Minister Ferdinand Henry also added his long-quiet voice to the criticism of government’s handling of the industry, while former Prime Minister Sir John Compton announced he would have been addressing banana farmers in Dennery on the weekend.

Former SLBGA Chairman Rupert Gajdhar has also been making a bid for the leadership of the SLBC at the upcoming shareholders meeting.

The St. Lucia Tourist Board last week announced that next year’s 10^th anniversary St. Lucia Jazz festival will be a lavish affair, which will be kicked off on December 11 with a simultaneous launching in St. Lucia and the rest of the world to be broadcast over BET’s "Bet On Jazz" programme.

The Board said the line-up for next year’s festival will also be announced by a so-far-unnamed entertainment celebrity.

Government Ministers last Thursday concluded their weekly Cabinet meeting ahead of time to attend the funeral of the late Joseph Alexander, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Communications & Works, who died suddenly at his home in Grace, Vieux Fort a week earlier, reportedly from heart complications.

The staff of the Ministry of Communications had been given the day off to attend the funeral of their late PS and several government vehicles were made available to transport persons to the funeral.

Government also announced last week a joint venture project between two international firms to establish a gypsum plant in Choiseul that will generate its own electricity and sell excess current to Lucelec.

The gypsum plant will operate with imported raw materials and the manufactured roofing tiles and other such products will be exported to markets in the Caribbean and beyond.

Construction of the plant will begin in January 2001 and it will employ 200 persons.

Government last week also announced Cabinet had approved a project by the operators of HTS/Radio 100 to operate a Call Centre business here next year.

The station’s Managing Director Linford Fevriere said later that when it gets under way, the Call Centre will employ 600 jobs.

Prime Minister Anthony said after the completion of the deregulation of the telecommunications sector in the OECS, the new company will be given the license to go ahead with its state-of-the-art operation in the information technology field.

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