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Cable and Wireless cuts prices
International direct dialled telephone calls will be between ten and sixty percent cheaper as of 1st October. Cable and Wireless announced these swingeing price cuts last Monday, in response, the company claims, to recurrent complaints from the public – both private and commercial - about the high cost of international calls. All major newspapers carry reports on the C&W statement. Price reductions vary according to destination, but all overseas calls will be reduced to 99 US cents or less per minute to anywhere in the world, at weekends. According to the Mirror, Minister Calixte George, who heads the OECS team that is currently negotiating with C&W to attain liberalisation of the telecommunications market as of the year 2000 [see last week's news], called the price cuts proof of a "wind of change" at C&W. Further, the Mirror, Star and Crusader all report that, despite the price cuts, St. Lucians continue to be fairly critical of C&W's monopolistic position on the island, and its allegedly high domestic rates and other charges. The Mirror's editorial, however, argues that instead of single-mindedly attacking the C&W monopoly, St. Lucians ought to start learning about the details of the telecoms industry and begin to carve out a potentially profitable economic position within the sector.
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Berth two under investigation
Reports in last week's Mirror that one of the two new berths at Pointe Seraphine is said to be sinking into the harbour at a rate of possibly up to one centimeter per day, are now under investigation by the construction project's consultant and an independent expert . The St. Lucia Air and Sea Ports Authority announced this week that no further statements will be made until these investigations are completed. This was reported in all major papers.
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Vieux Fort Free Zone on target for November
The St. Lucia Goods Distribution Free Zone (GDFZ) in Vieux Fort, is on target with plans for its official launching in November beginning to take shape. With support from the People's Republic of China, eleven large warehouses are currently being built along the old airport runway. The National Development Corporation, meanwhile, continues overseas marketing of the GDFZ - the first of its kind in the Caribbean - having recently completed a trip to St. Vincent where members of both islands' Chambers of Commerce discussed the advantages of the project. Goods identified for sale at the GDFZ, when it becomes operational, include clothing, electronics, jewellery, alcohol, books, perfumes, hardware, household and ornamental items, car parts, toys and electrical fittings. This is reported in the Thursday Voice.
According to the Star, the NDC is happy with the overall response to the GDFZ project - except for that from the manufacturing sector. The paper quotes NDC's general manager, Jacqueline Albertini, as saying that the NDC intends to educate manufacturers more fully on the opportunities offered by the GDFZ for boosting their exports and cutting costs.
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Domestic violence project cancelled
A front page report in the Star claims that the government, and more specifically, Health minister Sarah Flood-Beaubrun, has cancelled a much-publicised British-funded project which would have led to the establishment of the island's first shelter for battered and abused women. The project had already progressed into phase one and financial and personnel support for subsequent stages were guaranteed. The Acting British High Commissioner to St. Lucia, Peter Hughes, is reported in the Star to have said that he is "disappointed" at the project's sudden termination. At the time of the Star's going to press, no comment from minister Flood-Beaubrun was available.
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Daily paid workers threaten with action
Daily paid workers at Victoria Hospital began silent protest action this week, and heavier industrial action is being anticipated by the National Workers' Union if government does not resume negotiations on a wage increase. Wage talks were suspended some time ago, after the NWU rejected government's offer of a six or eight per cent wage increase, saying that it was inadequate for "poorly-paid" workers. Other public sector unions accepted the offer at the time. This is reported in the Star and Voice newspapers.
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Banana issue thorn in side of US - St. Lucia relations
"We are saying, give the Caribbean their preferences but we want to see those preferences structured in a way that will abide by the [WTO] trade rules". These words were noted down by a Star newspaper reporter quoting US ambassador for the Anglophone Eastern Caribbean, William Crotty, at a press conference last Tuesday following Crotty's official meeting with the Governor-General, Prime Minister and minister of Foreign Affairs.
Despite the United States' support for a recent WTO ruling prohibiting preferential treatment for Windward bananas in the European market, Crotty this week spoke words of assurance to the government and people of St. Lucia, saying that the US government "remains firmly committed to finding a mutually satisfactory resolution of the WTO Banana Case that ensures continued access and preferential treatment for the Windward Island bananas".
Reports of the US ambassador's visit to St. Lucia are carried in all main newspapers this week - but none explains how exactly the US envisages its alleged support for preferential treatment of Windward bananas.
The Star perhaps comes closest to an explanation when it cites the US ambassador as claiming that the US position on bananas "has been misunderstood from the beginning. The American position has always been that we have no quarrel with preferences, we advocate preferences right now for the Caribbean nations including St. Lucia". From the same article, it also appears that Crotty views the WTO ruling as an impartial decision of an organisation whose rules all parties involved agreed upon from the start, and in which US economic interests played no decisive part.
The Star quotes Crotty as saying: "As far as I understand it, not one banana has been hurt in its production, marketing or selling by virtue of the WTO or GATT position". That point of view is certainly not supported by an observation in the lead article in the Mirror, this week, where flooding of the European market by Del Monte with discount price fruit is cited to be an important factor in forcing banana prices to a record low. The US has considerable business interests in Del Monte, a multinational company which produces bananas in Middle America.
In both the Star and Mirror newspapers, ambassador Crotty is reported as shifting responsibility for the adverse WTO ruling to the European Union. In the Mirror, Crotty is quoted: "The banana issue is a thorn in everyone's side. There are a lot of players, not all of whom are willing to sit down and discuss a resolution to the problem". According to the newspaper, Crotty singled out the European Union in particular - but again, media reports do not make it clear how exactly Crotty views Europe's shortcomings with respect to the banana issue.
The Thursday Voice reports that the ambassador assured Governor-General Dame Louisy last Tuesday that there will continue to be close consultation with all interested parties with a view to finding a solution to the banana issue and the Star states that, according to Crotty, the question which now remains is how to have the "Caribbean nations retain their preferences, and make sure that they are able to market and sell their products in Europe in the same quantity as they have in the past".
The vagueness surrounding the US ambassador's official stance on the banana issue, as reported in the local media, is not mirrored in the words of Foreign Affairs minister George Odlum. Odlum praised the US' apparent desire "to repair and strengthen its relationship with St. Lucia", but simultaneously expressed the opinion that the ongoing banana dispute is causing a strain on US-Caribbean relations and is adversely affecting the lives and economies of the various Caribbean countries. Caribbean leaders, Mr. Odlum is quoted as saying by both the Mirror and the Star, "feel sore that America has now decided to take so tough a line" against the small, vulnerable countries of the OECS over the banana issue.
In his meeting with government officials and the press, Ambassador Crotty touched upon two other topics besides the banana issue, namely instances of co-operation between the two nations, and the Caribbean's position vis-a-vis Cuba.
With respect to the first, the Mirror carries a critical review of Crotty's statement to the press, which, the paper claims, focussed on "long lists of things" which in Crotty's view have been achieved because of increased co-operation between the US and St. Lucia, such as US contributions to economic diversification programmes, business and tourism development, technical expertise and disaster mitigation improvement, and scholarships for OECS students. According to Mirror journalist Jason Sifflet, however: "Anti-American sentiment in the region is at its highest since the leftist, socialist and Black Power seventies". The Mirror reporter also claims that in the course of the 1990s, "the world's only super-power [the US] has increasingly become a symbol of economic tyranny and political interference" in the Caribbean region.
In a separate article, the Mirror cites Crotty as expressing US concerns over the recent strengthening of diplomatic ties between Caribbean Community states and communist Cuba. "We feel that the Caribbean nations can put pressure on Cuba to bring about human rights", Crotty told the Mirror. "Rather than cosy up to Cuba, tell the Castro regime that we mean business". The Star carries Crotty's appeal to St. Lucian officials to "stop pandering to Cuba" as a lead story.
Meanwhile, negotiations continue on the island between the St. Lucia Banana Corporation and Geest Industries, in a bid to support banana prices paid to local farmers, but progress is slow, according to the SLBC. Both the Star and Mirror report that Geest has proposed paying a dividend to WIBDECO of about one million pounds sterling, which WIBDECO can put towards price support - but the SLBC says that further negotiations are needed in order to find ways of bringing banana prices back to acceptable levels.
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Hotel for Vieux Fort: Shantytown relocation
Some one hundred squatter households from Shantytown, Vieux Fort, will be relocated in the next six months to an area at Cantonement, along the St. Jude's highway, to make room for the construction of a 250-room EP hotel. This was announced by prime minister Kenny Anthony at a meeting with Shantytown residents, last Wednesday. According to reports in the Voice and Star newspapers, residents cheered when they received news that government intends to donate house lots of at least 3,000 square feet each to the affected households on a freehold basis. Government will also construct a house foundation on each lot, pay for relocation and any associated damages, and equip the relocation area with paved roads, water, electricity and drainage. Small business people and livestock farmers will also be accommodated, according to reports in the media.
The proposed hotel is a project from a regional developer and, according to the Voice, the PM has announced that it will include tennis courts as well as a golf course. The cost of relocation of Shantytown residents will be funded by the sale of land to the hotel developers.
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Vigie roundabout causes confusion
Despite elaborately graphic announcements in the local press, the new roundabout at the Vigie Junction so far seems to have increased, rather than abated, congestion of traffic travelling between Castries and the north. Last Friday, traffic backed up from the junction as far back as Marisule, and drivers coming from the north had to make a detour through Balata and Morne Dudon to reach the city of Castries. The Voice editorial this week calls for a traffic officer to be stationed at the roundabout during morning and evening rush hours.
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Air Jamaica launches full-time local operations
Air Jamaica is due to expand its operations in St. Lucia in September, with the opening of new offices in Castries and at Hewanorra Airport in Vieux Fort.This was reported in the media this week. At Hewanorra, full-time Air Jamaica staff will take over ticketing and airport operations from Caribbean Dispatch Services Ltd., occupying the counter that was previously used by American Airlines, until last April when that company pulled out of the island. Air Jamaica's vice-president for sales and marketing, Allen Chastanet, stated that the decision to expand operations in St. Lucia is the result of his company's growth here over the past two and a half years. Last June, Air Jamaica increased its services to St. Lucia from six flights a week to fourteen. Currently, Air Jamaica is the only carrier operating out of St. Lucia with a daily jet service to New York and Miami.
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Work permit laws under scrutiny
The work permits advisory committee, which in previous weeks had reached a stale-mate with Labour minister Velon John, will be discontinued and replaced by a review committee, whose task it will be to review the procedures and legislation governing the issuance of work permits. This is the result of a meeting held last Monday, between the prime minster, minister of Labour, and the members of the work permits advisory committee. Reports on the meeting are carried in the Thursday Voice and the Star. The three-member review committee is to be chaired by Peter Devaux. It was noted at the meeting that the absence of legislative provisions and clear terms of reference seriously hampered the work of the advisory committee. The review committee is to ensure that a repetition of the recent conflict between minister and advisory committee will not re-occur. Furthermore, according to the Thursday Voice, it is to end what was noted at the meeting to be "a traditional tendency on the part of some employers of foreign nationals to flout the island's Immigrantion and Labour Laws with apparent immunity or impunity, while hampering the work of Immigration Officials and Labour Inspectors".
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OECS stock exchange in the making
Groundwork is being carried out to prepare St. Lucia and the other OECS member states for the advent of an OECS/ECCB stock exchange. Already, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and the Bahamas have stock exchanges. The OECS/ECCB stock market could become operational as early as March next year. This is reported in the Crusader.
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Counterfeit notes in circulation
Several incidents of counterfeiting are currently under investigation by police in St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, Antigua, Grenada and Montserrat. The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank urges the public to exercise due caution, and check bank notes for watermarks and other security features.
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Verroa mite kills bees: honey exports drop
The north of the island is being plagued by a type of mite (Verroa) which is destroying bee hives to the extent where, according to the minister of Agriculture, up to seventy-five per cent of hives have already been lost. On the whole, the bee population on the island has been reduced to a mere fifty per cent, causing a serious fall in the export of St. Lucian honey to Martinique and other Caribbean islands.
This was announced by minister of Agriculture, Cassius Elias, last Thursday, on the occasion of Quarantine Awareness Day.The Voice and Star both report on this. According to the Star, farmers have also been put on the alert for the Black Stigatoga and Moko disease in bananas, and Newcastle disease in poultry.
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Saudi ambassador visits St. Lucia
Saudi Arabian Prince, ambassador and director-general of the ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, His Royal Highness Dr. Turki Ben Mohammed Ben Saub Al Kabir met with prime minister Dr. Kenny Anthony and Foreign Affairs minister George Odlum last Monday, to discuss matters of bilateral interest. The Saudi ambassador also visited Haiti and Barbados on similar missions. (The Star/Thursday Voice).
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Council on external trade
A council on external trade is to be launched on Wednesday. An initiative of the ministry of Foreign Affairs, the council is to ensure a coordinated national position on international trade issues, as well as to effectuate foreign trade promotion. (The Voice/Crusader).
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