A National Development Bank to create jobs for SVG
Earlier this year, Prime Minister Dr Hon. Godwin Friday announced plans to reintroduce the National Development Bank (NDB) intended to create jobs and provide new opportunities for Vincentians to create a successful career here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Reintroducing the NDB will address the gaps in access to development financing in order to provide support to sectors and projects that will help national development. This will help markets where the developmental factor is high, in productive areas such as the four pillars of the economy – the Blue Economy, Agriculture, Tourism, and the New Economy – as well as developing small manufacturing and services industries.
Investing in Vincentians and Vincentian businesses will create new opportunities for growth, bringing more money into the economy and the skills we need to develop so we can strengthen our economy.
The government is all too aware that international partners such as the IMF and others have expressed concerns about the management of a development bank and the risks of it becoming a financial burden.
While we, as a government, take these concerns seriously, our primary responsibility is to the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines first and foremost. We will draw upon regional best practises, design governance and risk safeguarding that stands up to international scrutiny while providing for Vincentian needs, and ultimately let the results of the NDB speak for themselves.
Now is the time for action. When I entered government, our nation suffered for widespread unemployment, with the lowest wages in the Caribbean. During the election campaign, I would see firsthand the impact of 24 years of neglect under the ULP. Young people with little to no hope, people’s children were moving to neighbouring countries – and further afield – in search for work because there simply were no jobs here for them.
The NDP was voted on a mandate to create jobs and provide new opportunities for our people. When I go on walkabouts in my constituency of East St. George and speak to people around the country as part of my ministerial work, people tell me how much they want to work and develop new skills to be productive.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines has some of the most brilliant minds – I am often told about fantastic ideas from young Vincentians who simply do not have the finances available to make their vision a reality and have never had the support of the government, under the previous administration.
This will all change with the establishment of the NDB.
My government’s reintroduction of a Development Bank will provide ‘soft loans’ for persons who do not own security such as houses or land to access loans to invest in businesses that would bring more money into our economy and help our country prosper.
The NDB will be pivotal in providing young persons with great ideas to afford embarking on entrepreneurship to develop SVG, while supporting food security, renewable energy, and climate resilience; and ensuring that economic development actively reaches every corner of our country.
We have already begun consultations which will take place around the country to discuss how the NDB will benefit people up and down our country and I encourage everyone reading this to participate in these discussions.
I do not accept is the blanket assumption that small island states are incapable of managing public financial institutions responsibly. We only need to look Grenada and its Development Bank which has been profitable for 15 years and provided dividends for seven years to see what is possible in SVG. Further afield in Belize and Jamaicia we can see similar success stories.
The previous administration was inactive and neglected the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. It did not see the great ideas our country has or believe in Vincentians to deliver, instead providing handouts which led to the economic mismanagement that saw the downgrade in our country’s Moody’s Rating and vast levels of unemployment.
This NDP Government is listening and is committed to delivering the mandate it was elected on – to create jobs and new opportunities for Vincentians in every corner of the country – and the National Development Bank will be a key tool in achieving this.
