PRIME MINISTER FRIDAY CALLS FOR PARTNERSHIPS TO BUILD INVESTABLE, RESILIENT FUTURES
NEW YORK, United States (23rd September 2026) — Prime Minister Hon. Dr Godwin Friday has called for closer collaboration among governments, private investors, multilateral institutions and development partners to help Small Island Developing States translate national development priorities into credible, investable opportunities.
Prime Minister Friday made the call while addressing the Family Offices for Sustainable Development Summit (FOSD) at the United Nations Headquarters in New York under the theme, “Building Investable Futures Through Multilateral Partnership: From Diplomacy to Deployment.”
The FOSD Summit brings together Heads of State and Government, United Nations leadership, family offices and global partners, creating a platform where public policy and private capital can converge to advance sustainable development. This year’s Summit focused particularly on moving shared development priorities beyond diplomatic commitments and towards practical investment and implementation.
Prime Minister Friday told the gathering that Saint Vincent and the Grenadines should not be limited by its vulnerabilities, stressing that although the country is a Small Island Developing State, its ambition is not limited by its geography.
He said the Government’s development agenda is centred on improving citizens’ quality of life and ensuring that economic progress creates meaningful opportunities for people.
“Development has never been about numbers. It is about people.”
Prime Minister Friday highlighted employment, education, viable livelihoods, access to capital and resilient public infrastructure as practical measures by which development must ultimately be assessed.
He noted that for countries such as Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, a single disaster can erase years of progress and force governments to borrow for recovery, further pressuring already limited public resources.
“Resilience should not be seen as optional expenditure, but as an investment in the continuity of development.”
The Prime Minister identified resilient infrastructure, renewable energy, sustainable tourism, agriculture and agro-processing, the blue economy, digital transformation, entrepreneurship and human capital as areas with significant potential for investment and development.
However, he said the public purse alone cannot finance the scale of national ambition, particularly when repeated shocks require countries to redirect resources towards recovery.
Prime Minister Friday said a vital part of the answer is building partnerships wherever they are available.
He called for private capital, multilateral institutions, civil society, regional institutions and international development partners to work alongside governments from the early stages of project development to create bankable possibilities and ready-to-go investment pipelines.
The Prime Minister also reaffirmed the Government’s openness to private investment.
“We have signalled clearly that we welcome private investments.”
He noted that regional collaboration is particularly important for small economies, enabling countries to achieve scale, share expertise, develop common standards and build investment platforms that attract institutional capital.
Prime Minister Friday also called for greater use of guarantees, concessional finance, technical assistance, political risk coverage and blended finance mechanisms to reduce risk and encourage responsible private investment.
He argued that private capital should be recognised not merely as a source of financing but as a partner in sustainable development.
The Prime Minister also urged development and financial institutions to better account for the value of resilience when assessing investment and risk.
“SIDS must not be an afterthought. We must design with them in mind from the ground up.”
Prime Minister Friday concluded by calling for a shift away from repeated recovery towards long-term resilience and credible investment pipelines.
“We have priorities. We have opportunities. We have ambition. What we need now is a stronger ecosystem that connects these with capital, with innovation, with expertise and risk sharing, and a willingness to think outside the box.”
The Prime Minister’s participation in the FOSD Summit forms part of the Government’s wider effort to connect Saint Vincent and the Grenadines’ development priorities with investment, expertise and international partnerships that can deliver practical results at home.
As Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Private Sector Development, Prime Minister Friday has placed job creation, private sector participation, investment and economic diversification at the centre of the Government’s agenda. His engagement at FOSD provided an opportunity to put those priorities directly before investors and international partners while making the case for financing models that recognise the particular realities of Small Island Developing States.
The Government’s objective is to translate these partnerships into greater economic opportunity, more resilient infrastructure, new investment and better lives for Vincentians.
