BASSETERRE, St Kitts – The opposition St Kitts-Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) has established an Economic Recovery Advisory Council (ERAC) comprising experts, leaders, and professionals in areas of economic and social reconstruction.
“This initiative provides another vivid demonstration of the vision and commitment of the St Kitts-Nevis Labour Party towards building resilience into the economy of St Kitts and Nevis. NextGen SKN team wants to hit the ground running, with great urgency from our first day in office, in a manner that would make life more affordable and less stressful for our young people, all families, and all businesses,” the SKNLP political leader, Dr Denzil L Douglas said in a statement.
The former prime minister said that despite the setbacks and fear caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, the St Kitts-Nevis Labour Party is ready to seize the opportunities upon which the foundation of a new post-COVID economy can be laid for the betterment of our people.
ERAC will provide monthly written reports on the progress of its work to the executive of the St Kitts-Nevis Labour Party and the future NextGen SKN labour administration leading up to the Federal election, which must take place no later than August 2020. The National Assembly will dissolve automatically on May 14, unless it is dissolved sooner by the outgoing prime minister, Dr Timothy Harris.
The economic recovery advisory council is tasked to:
(1) Reconnect and realign the local economy with the global tourism, trade and investment markets at the earliest possible time.
(2) Resuscitate and grow the main drivers of the national economy; tourism, manufacturing, construction and financial and other services in order to put people back to work as quickly as possible.
(3) Identify and invest in opportunities for further economic expansion and diversification based on the new norms and imperatives of the post-COVID-19 environment including inter alia, Agriculture and Food Security; ICT and Digital infrastructure; Comprehensive Primary Health Care and Universal Public Health Insurance and NextGen Education.
(4) Guide, channel and monitor foreign direct investment into public sector projects that will generate economic growth and yield exponential development dividends.
(5) Facilitate and stimulate bottom-up approaches to small and medium enterprise development in ways that would incentivize and reward our risk-takers and enhance their viability and competitiveness and create jobs.
(6) Restore St Kitts and Nevis Citizenship by Investment programme to global competitiveness.
(7) Create an institutional framework for harnessing the full spectrum of economic benefits that the Diaspora can bring to bear in St Kitts and Nevis in the areas of remittances; direct Investments; human capital transfers (knowledge, skills, ideas, contacts, and technology); philanthropic contributions; capital market investments; tourism; job creation; business development and Innovation.
(8) Optimize the quality and delivery of our public services to ensure maximum impact and efficiency and that will enhance the ease-of-doing-business in St Kitts and Nevis.
