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HUMILIATION! – That’s How Chamber of Commerce Sees ‘Doing Business’ Rating

THE St. Lucia Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture has taken very hard, the island’s recent fall in the rankings of the 2015 World Bank’s “Ease of Doing Business” (EODB) report.

GORDON CHARLES of JQ Charles Group of Companies
GORDON CHARLES of JQ Charles Group of Companies

Addressing the annual general meeting of the organization this week, President Gordon Charles described as “a humiliating experience”, seeing St Lucia slipping to 100th. overall and sixth in the English speaking Caribbean, just three years after it was ranked 53rd. in the world, Number 1 in the Caribbean and Number 2 in the wider region, including the Spanish-speaking countries.

Charles said that he had prepared to deliver as his address to the meeting, a message he had penned for his annual report, but said he had found himself in “the unfortunate and uncomfortable position” of having to change his plans because of the World Bank’s latest EODB report.

In a harshly critical reference to the government, Charles who was re-elected to the presidency for another term, told of the Chamber engaging the administration in an annual exercise aimed at creating an enabling environment in St Lucia to conflict business.

The Chamber also proposed a 10 step plan to address the issues “impacting negatively on the ease of doing business and impeding our ranking improvement”.

“It is therefore a very humiliating experience to see that despite our intentions and efforts and the many pledges and assurances of commitment and support from the government, St. Lucia has sunk even lower on the (EODB) rankings and equally important that in the three year period, only one reform has been implemented”.

Charles indicated that the Chamber at one point was aware that the country would be slipping down the rankings because of “the crisis of implementation” and inaction on the government’s part.

Said Charles: “From 2011 we engaged the government. Meeting with the Minister in Decemeber 2011, and early in 2012 in a meeting with no less than the Prime Minister we presented our new strategy which was intended to work jointly with the public sector towards a common goal of national interest.

“Our approach was accepted by the administration maybe because it reinforced our deliberate approach away from the more traditional and sometime confrontational approach when dealing with matters of concern.

“Along with our presented refocus the Chamber proposed a 10 step plan to addressing the issues impacting negatively on the ease of doing business and impeding our ranking improvement.

“Our enthusiasm was met with verbal pledges of reciprocal energy and commitments to drive this improvement to the business environment. A task force was established to monitor the performance of the efforts and to drive the reform, and a national forum was held.

“Possibly the first sign of a chink in the armour was that even though we indicated that this commitment needed a champion to lead the reform, and we felt that it should be no less than the Prime Minister or the Minister of Commerce, the government proceeded with the appointment of the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Commerce to head the task force, and that responsibility was occasionally subjugated to a senior officer in the said ministry”.

Charles said that while the Chamber had the highest regard for the permanent secretary and the technical staff of the Ministry of Commerce “we all know that this office does not wield the kind of authority or clout within this bureaucratic administration to get other ministries, agencies or departments to move decisively on anything of importance”.

He said that while he can say that the challenge which the chamber put to the prime minister last year was met, and at least one reform was implemented, clearly this was not sufficient or acceptable under any circumstances.

“It is no wonder that we are one of the very few economies in the Caribbean that continues to register economic decline’, Charles surmised..

6 Comments

  1. Will these officials ever get real? Such one-dimensional thinking! Why aren’t more of the many factors that go into the calculus addressed in trying to improve the country’s ranking?

  2. To me, ‘Ease of Doing Business’ is like being the easiest girl on the block. I know I am naive when it comes to business, but somehow I don’t think this is a ranking worth pursuing, or to be proud of.
    Number one tourist destination: Yes.
    Lowest crime rate in the region: Yes
    But selling our very souls (through nonbeneficial concessions to foreigners) for the sake of investments, is asking a little to much.

    We don’t need to be the easiest capitalist prostitute in the region; somewhere in the middle is OK.

  3. Tom:
    The ease of doing business in terms of the turnaround time for documents to get a business established is just one issue, as facilitated with the “one-stop” support systems: 1) key persons, 2) key documents, 3) key lawyers attorneys with the skills for completion of the process.

    However, to lose sight of the eco-systems approach in terms of business, economic and social infrastructure necessary can be fixed is to expect the car that is stalling because it ran out of gas by simply replacing only the battery, is an Ossi Moe kind of jokey approach to dealing with this serious business.

    Even more risible, is to lament only about the fall in the ratings. This presents an even a more pathetic misunderstanding of dynamic factors that are imperative for successful national approach to FDI. The Chamber is not a credible partner in the quest for more FDI. The actors do not show that they understand the issues.

    For example, the complainer has not shown any evidence that any serious thought has been given to the inputs into the calculation of the index. How on earth can you master something (i.e., to reverse engineer it, so to speak), if you do not know the mechanics (the contributing parts) of its creation?

  4. Well deserving, I listened to the Director of Consumer Affairs say that we don’t have legislation in place for consumers, as if it was the job of the government to set the motion. Well President, see how fast you can cook up a solution for the obvious negligence in your tenure and maybe those before you.
    This is the image portrayed from our interests in business development for our own country. Had you listened to our people then this should not be so surprising. Our youth is roaming the streets: no jobs after school. Businesses are closing. With the introduction of vat on commercial rent all the small shops in the city closed. Business men : Michael Chastenet and the Manager for the Baywalk and others came out to say how the VAT had affected business and consumer disposable income but the Chamber of Commerce had no balls to put in defence. EODB is just the icing on that sour cake .
    Where are your statistics?

  5. The superficiality of the response is remarkably stunning! We have such cardboard leaders in politics. But can the people operating in the real economy and in the real world rise above the inanities of party politics and give the country some necessary credible leadership instead? Please?

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