Prime Minister Philip J Pierre Sunday said Saint Lucia was moving in the wrong direction and that it needs a transformative agenda in order to set it in the right direction.
Pierre made the disclosure at the 71st Annual Conference of Delegates of the Saint Lucia Labour Party last Sunday.
“Our mandate is clear we will always put the people first. Rest assured we have not forgotten our pledge to legally correct the wrongs of the past UWP government. During the campaign we told you that the country’s finances were in a poor state, but we did not know half (of) the story,” Pierre asserted.
“We are taking steps to improve the country’s finances. It’s important that our country returns to macroeconomic stability; we need to restore confidence in our country. We will pay our debts, we will introduce transparency in the procurement methods and we will account to the taxpayers for the use of their money,” he added.
Pierre said that government is currently in the process of preparing for its 2022/2023 budget and is laying the groundwork to address the aforementioned fiscal challenges.
“The budget will signal a new beginning for the people of Saint Lucia. Our country was moving in the wrong direction; we need a transformative agenda that will involve all the people but actively engage our brothers and sisters in the diaspora,” he said.
“Our interest is the development of our people; the creation of wealth by creating sustainable livelihoods and businesses. We plan to revitalize the economy by ensuring macroeconomic stability and fiscal responsibility. This means that we must pay our debts on time; our future borrowings will be for priority areas that will cause economic expansion.
We are faced with serious fiscal challenges brought about by ridiculous financial management and wrong priorities that have been worsened by the COVID pandemic. We have a mountain of unnecessary debt,” Pierre said.
He said government will create an enabling environment for the private sector by levelling the playing field, making the same incentives available to all investors; local and foreigners.
“We are working to improve the economy. We envisage a promising future unless there are circumstances beyond our control that would change this,’ he said.
The prime minister asserted that the COVID-19 pandemic threatened to completely overwhelm the country’s health system, but with the dedication of health workers and effective scientific interventions, “we hope the worst is beyond us, however, we can place no reliance on the behaviour of that killer virus. We urge our people to get vaccinated and follow the public health protocols.”
“We promised to make health care accessible and affordable. I am pleased to announce that soon the Minister of Health will make some important announcements on our universal health care. We are on track with the St Jude Hospital reconstruction, and we are confident that the people in the south in particular, will soon be relieved of the horrible conditions that they are forced to endure at the makeshift stadium hospital,” Pierre said.