Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), Godwin Friday, has urged Vincentians in the United States to invest in their country, telling them that for his government, the diaspora are preferred investors.
The prime minister made the call at a meet and greet in Washington, on Friday, where he outlined that his New Democratic Party’s (NDP) government’s vision for SVG, is centred on its focus on the four pillars of the economy: agriculture, tourism, the blue economy (fishing, marina, etc.) and the new economy (culture, arts, digital economy, etc.).
“To do this, however, we need all kinds of partners. So we have said, in keeping with the philosophy of our party, that we are open for business,” said Friday, who is also political leader of the NDP, a right-of-centre party.
“That don’t mean that anybody can come and take advantage of us, because our eyes are wide open. We have some very skilled, experienced people who can make sound judgments about people who come for us. We can separate the charlatans from the real thing,” the prime minister said.
“But we need partners for that investment. This is where our diaspora. You who have so much experience,” said Friday, who also has ministerial responsibility for finance, legal affairs and justice, economic planning, and private sector development.
“You have probably more money than me and Fitz,” he said, referring to Dwight Fitzgerald Bramble, his minister of foreign affairs, foreign trade, foreign investment, and diaspora affairs, who also spoke at the event.
“If you don’t have it, you have friends, you have people who have these things that they can put together. So, you start thinking, ‘Maybe this is something that we can get going in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. We can invest in tourism,” the prime minister said.
“Sometimes, you see that people who are not from St. Vincent, they may come and invest, and then our people come and they say, ‘Well, how come these people doing this and so forth?’ And they feel these people taking over, and somebody from somewhere else, but you come and do it,” Friday said.
“You have a natural advantage. We have said, Fitz has told you, we are reaching out to our diaspora in a structured way …
“We have now put a structure in place to make sure that there are channels and definite mechanisms that you can use to engage with us in order to get investments going in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
“You are our preferred investors. Take that one in. So, let’s form this partnership together. And there are so many things we can do. There are so many areas of the economy that there’s potential for investment,” the prime minister said.
He said there are many o the areas of the economy that have potential for investment, adding, “It is only sustainable if you can make money doing it.
“We are going to cut red tape, we are going to make things easier for you to do business. This is why he’s in charge of Invest SVG, and is putting together a plan to accelerate those types of investment that we need for the country,” the prime minister said, referring to Kevin Hope, the government’s ambassador for finance, climate and investment.
He said there are investment opportunities in tourism, infrastructure, the fishing industry, small businesses, and digital businesses.
“Don’t limit ourselves by what we are used to in our past. I say to the people, young people, about agriculture, you’re thinking about agriculture in the way that your grandparents used to practice it. There are other ways in which you can do it.
“There are sciences that we can put there to make them more productive and find markets internally and within the region. These are very exciting times.”
Friday said that in Washington, his delegation has been reaching out to the international institutions.
“For me, it’s been a learning experience, because it’s my first trip on a meeting of this sort,” he said, adding that the meetings were “more like speed dating, because you go from one meeting to the next, and you’re constantly going … And so that’s what we do.”
He, however, said that they went to Washington to work.
“So long as there is an opportunity for me to engage with anyone who has a possibility, a potential, to be a partner in this recovery process that we have in mind for our country, I will put myself forward to be able to do it,” the prime minister said.
Friday led a delegation that included Bramble to the first Spring Meeting of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group since the NDP was elected to office in November.
“And so we’ve been doing that throughout this whole week that we’ve been here. We have been working very, very hard, and we have had some very fruitful results from our consultations and from our new partnerships and extending the ones that we have become used to.”
Friday said that his government is a government for all the people of SVG.
“Partisanship has its place when you’re campaigning. That’s what makes a lively and robust democracy,” he said, adding that it is necessary “to get the best out of our political leaders and to keep them accountable.
“But it cannot be taken to the point where it becomes a divide that we can’t transcend, one that makes us inefficient and unable to function as a society, as a country, as an economy. We cannot continue as we have done in the past.”
He said that despite the things that were said about him, he has not called anyone a bad name on the rostrum.
“Because, you know why? I don’t care what they say about them. The reason I didn’t do that is because they don’t put spread in people’s people…
“So when you hear me don’t answer stuff said about me, it’s not that it doesn’t hurt sometimes. We’re human. But it says, I am here to do a job. If it takes me away from doing that job, then I don’t bother with it. I won’t do it just because of my ego.
“So you have tremendous potential in St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the team that we have in the new government, we have people who are dedicated, are capable, and they’re working very hard for you.
“For me, as the prime minister of the country, I tell you, I will work as hard as I can every single day to deliver on those promises that we have made.
“But more than that, the promises that you and your families back home that you’ve made to that young child, as I said, who was going to kindergarten and then goes to grade school and then to secondary school, all of that education and that effort was because there was a promise implicit in that, that we will deliver a better life for them in our country. That motivates me, and I intend to deliver on it.”
Friday said that he likes to meet with people and that is why he toured the entire country after being elected opposition leader in 2016.
“That is how you get informed as to what people are thinking, what they are concerned about, and utilise whatever they bring to the table to help us together, to make life better.
“My job, simply to make the people of our country more secure and to deliver a better life just like them,” the prime minister said.
