Dominica is now a significant part of the business of L’Express des Iles and it has grown from year to year, the company’s Managing Director has stated.
As a matter of fact, Roland Bellemare said, if it wasn’t for Dominica, the service would probably no longer exist.
“Dominica is now a significant part of the business of L’Express de Iles, it has grown year after year,” he said at the Dedication Ceremony of the Dublanc Playing Field and renovated Sports Pavilion on Sunday. “Without this call maybe our service would no longer exist.”
The playing field and pavilion were renovated by L’Express des Iles.
Bellemare continued, “There is a plague on the Dame Eugenia Charles Boulevard in Roseau saying ‘thank God the French were here.’ At L’Express des Isle we say, ‘thank God Dominica is there between Guadeloupe and Martinique.'”
The dedication of the playing field and pavilion formed part of activities commemorating the 30th anniversary of L’Express des Iles and Bellemare said the ceremony was a form of the company coming to its customers.
“Daily for the 30 past years our customers, you, walk to our ticketing office either in Roseau or Portsmouth and then onto the Roseau Ferry Terminal to catch the ferry, you walk to us,” he stated. “On this special occasion we wanted to walk to you, where are customers are…”
He stated Dublanc was chosen because the village has provided five of the 15 professional employees from Dominica who work on L’Express des Iles.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister, Roosevelt Skerrit hailed L’Express des Iles for partnering with Dublanc for renovating the playing field and pavilion which was damaged by Tropical Storm Erika in 2015.
“Private-public partnership is critical if our countries are to advance,” he stated. “The state, the government is there to provide certain services to its citizens but without the partnership of the private sector and citizens our countries could not advance at the pace at which our citizens would like it to advance.”
He said such partnership is needed more in Dominica and also by extension, the world.
“Because at the end of the day the private sector is the major beneficiary of all the government’s investments whether it is in education, because you get the qualified people, whether its in health, you ensure you have healthy people, whether its in infrastructure, you benefit from this,” he remarked. “And it is important to give back as it were to the communities.”
Thanks you L’Express des Isles thanks so much.
Mr. Bellemare, I appreciate your company’s service to Martinique and Guadeloupe, which gives us a very useful alternative to connect with international airlines through these islands. I think we could do better though and I would ask you to bring your pressure to bear to make check-in and arrival clearance in Dominica less of a hassle and more customer friendly. This would not only help your company to grow but also Dominica’s tourism. I would like our government to abolish the pernicious departure tax, which is a turn-off for a lot of visitors. Perhaps we could even think about a cooperation between yourself and AirCaraibe and/or Norwegian Air to smoothen the transfer to Dominica and so increase traffic. Or how about an arrangement whereby tourists arrive in Guadeloupe for instance, take a ferry with a possible stop-over in Dominica and depart from Martinique? The possibilities for growth are plenty. Thank you.
Yet another indictment on Leave Island Any Time LIAT. Nice job nonetheless on your company’s behalf.
Maybe He should also say ‘thank God LIAT has such terrible service! ‘
Not only terrible service but also terribly expensive.
Good job L’Express Des Iles. We can count on numerous villages ISLAND WIDE where DLP has totally and deliberately abandoned sports and the youths in general..Good to see that you can somehow contribute to the development of OUR YOUTH.This lazy regime of clustered DLP HAS TOTALLY ABANDONED THEM.
SKERRIT MUST GO
SKERRIT MUST GO
SKERRIT MUST GO NOW!