Castries, St. Lucia – Minister for Infrastructure, Ports, Energy and Labour, Stephenson King announced at this Tuesday’s House of Assembly sitting that Saint Lucia is scheduled to welcome its first Mega Cruise Vessel by December of this year.
The announcement was made following a Motion to allow the Minister of Finance to borrow US$15,000,000.00 from the National Insurance Corporation for the Saint Lucia Air and Sea Ports Authority for the purpose of the extension of the Breasting Dolphin Berth located at Pointe Seraphine in order to facilitate the berthing of mega cruise vessels.
The Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Economic Growth, Job Creation, External Affairs and the Public Service, Allen M. Chastanet introduced the Motion while also explaining that this was a project the Government was continuing under a new loan arrangement. The Prime Minister also hoped that this will be a new era for the NIC and called the project “absolutely necessary.”
For his part Stephenson King traced briefly the history of the development and upgrade of Port Castries. He also stressed that due to the growth projections for the cruise sector “there is a greater need for us to place emphasis on the improvement, development and the enhancement of the cruise facilities and infrastructure on the island.”
“This Government has made a firm commitment not only to improve Port Castries and to consider a new location for the establishment of a new commercial port but also to continue to improve on the cruise ship facilities and by extension to look to the south of the country to establish a major cruise port in the south in Vieux Fort that will compliment a number of the economic initiatives that the Government has committed itself to, including the establishment of the DSH Project.”
Minister King went on: “This is a holistic approach, a Global initiative, on the part of the Government looking beyond the shores, beyond the sand and sea, and looking to the international arena to see how Saint Lucia can maintain its position and be able to offer two world class facilities, one in the north and one in the south, that will attract international business that we as a country seek to adopt and to place Saint Lucia as the number one cruise ship destination in the Caribbean. SLASPA has initiated the project to extend the Pointe Seraphine berth No. 1 which will mean the commencement of that initiative to facilitate the first call of the vessel sometime in December.”
Once the berth is completed Saint Lucia is expected to see an increase of 20 percent in the call of vessels to Port Castries and an increase in passenger arrivals by 19 percent.
“This means that there is need for a level of consciousness in our business community. It means that our people must understand that there are opportunities and possibilities being presented to them and to identify those opportunities and make good use of the opportunities and venture into a world of possibilities,” stated Minister King.
“If that happens and providing that we as a government supported by the people will commit ourselves to improving the quality of service that we provide, it is anticipated that we will have much more than the five calls anticipated by Carnival Cruise lines who have committed themselves to visit Port Castries.”
Minister with responsibility for Tourism, Information and Broadcasting Honourable Dominic Fedee also lent his support to the Motion.
“The cruise industry was in tremendous decline,” explained Minister Fedee reflecting on the state of the industry nine months ago. “In fact the numbers for 2016 had shown that we declined by some 16 percent. This is despite the fact that Saint Lucia had a comparative advantage over a number of our Eastern Caribbean jurisdictions. We realized that something had to be done drastically and we took the decision that we had to engage the cruise lines a lot more and be more aggressive to get Saint Lucia out there.”
Minister Fedee noted that judging by the figures year to date Saint Lucia had already seen an increase of 22 percent in cruise industry growth.
Some of you appear to forget that St. Lucia has an international airport which assists its economy. Due to this, St. Lucia will always get more tourists/visitors than Dominica.
What I have heard, crimes in St. Lucia are higher than in Dominica. I have also heard/read of some gruesome murders of visitors, one of which was from Canada. There may be more.
Be positive. In time Dominica will progress as much, if not more than St. Lucia.
in time…. how much time again,…. how long do we have to wait for this place to get the economic boos that it soo eagerly desires… in all this time people are become poorer and poorer.. so lets wait for more time still… is a good thing time waits for no man
Skerrit had the perfect opportunity to expand (due to the shortsightedness/lack of money by Mamo) both cruise ship berths (Roseau and Portsmouth) to accommodate larger cruise ships or at least two cruise Ships per port.
at least two???.. what a shame.. we have ports in the caribbean.. our smaller island neighbours having 8 ships in port…smh
In the meantime Skerrit is passing around sharing money,to see if he can repair the damage that his good friend MONFARED had done to his leadership status…Its Santa Ckaus in April,while other Caribbean leaders are doing their countrys work.
SANTA CLAUS MUST GO!
PAPA NOEL MUST GO!
THE “I” “I” “I” MAN MUST GO!!
More pit toilet,, galvinez, windows, building blocs, building houses for the laborites who them self can afford to build there own houses, , all that is done in secret for political votes while the other Caribbean Island prosper and leave us in the dirt, thanks Skerro, we wont miss you when you are gone. I ask why the government has to pay people’s electric bill for votes [pay as you go ?]
you are sooo right
Meanwhile in Dumbminica, Skerrit goes around promising millions in toilets and the Dumbinicans love it.
dont hate on my dumbcans garson
go e z
Still around? You lack basic common sense. Why the criticism? It is irrelevant and makes no sense whatsoever.
If you were in their position, would you not be elated to have proper toilet facilities? It is also good and healthy for the community and the country in general.
There was a time that some people in Roseau did not have a proper toilet. Some probably still do not have one.
Remember when there was a toilet/pit latrine near the New Bridge? Out of town trucks would park on the opposite side. Some residents lived opposite it. As people passed by the stench emanating from it was awful, not to mention unhealthy.
For a country which is striving for progress, you should be smarter than that. Alas, you are not. It is obvious you do not want Dominica to progress and a better, comfortable life for others who never had it, the needy.
Where is your Christianity? Down the drain?
no.. its not right to give a man a fish.. teach him how to fish so he can have fish for his lifetime and never be hungry… in other words build the economy so that people like u will be gainfully employed and not sit at the bottom of financial center waiting on red clinic to give u your necessities for day to day living