Buying, Selling, And Cruising: New And Old Cruise Ships In The Caribbean

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BUYING, SELLING, AND CRUISING:

NEW AND OLD CRUISE SHIPS IN THE CARIBBEAN

By Ed Kennedy, STAR Businessweek Correspondent

It is no pun to say cruise ships are always coming and going. Sailing from port to port, sometimes under the command of a small and new operator, but often under old and famous flags that can trace their heritage back decades. Just as the cruise industry can trace its beginnings all the way back to the mid-1800’s!

Continued on page 4

UK seeks reforms on overseas aid spending The UK wants to change the international definition of government aid spending to include profits from overseas investments, in the latest effort to increase the role of the private sector in development programmes Page 3

US Senate passes $60bn foreign development bill The Senate has passed a bill that will create a $60bn agency to invest in developing countries in what has been sold to Donald Trump, the US president, as a way of countering China’s growing global influence Page 7

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Modernising tourism How technology can be used to reform and refine the Caribbean’s tourism product

By Catherine Morris, STAR Businessweek Correspondent

The STAR Businessweek

BY Christian Wayne – Editor at Large

The face(s) of international development finance is changing. Much like the benefactors themselves, the modalities of development aid are becoming increasingly nontraditional. The new world order is becoming somewhat antiquated, depending of course, on who you ask. Our traditional allies are attempting to become more insular, despite the multipolar current of the world around them. The United States of America has finally begun to take notice of the corrosive effects of China’s debt diplomacy, albeit from a national security perspective rather than one of neighbourly altruism. Read more on America’s plans to overhaul its overseas development aid activities in “US Senate passes $60bn foreign development bill” on page 7.

The United Kingdom is also planning (I’m using planning very generously here) to reform the manner in which it fulfills its overseas aid spending obligations by channelling larger portions of aid into private-sector oriented vehicles—something Labour recently denounced as “an outrageous distortion of the country’s overseas development programme”. Read more in the Financial Times reporting on page 3.

The archetype for 20th century multilateralism—the IMF—has even found itself in an awkward ‘Make America Great Again’ quandary as it concludes its annual meetings in Indonesia tomorrow. With the organisation’s largest financial contributor, the United States, growing increasingly uninterested in deploying American taxpayer dollars towards bailing out shitholes like Pakistan, the IMF’s leadership is using these meetings to dissuade MAGAnauts and other sceptics of the organisation’s irrelevance in contemporary geopolitics. Despite seemingly pleasant relations between US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin and IMF managing director and chairwoman Christine Lagarde, many Washington observers still speculate that the only way to really get American juices flowing again is if Ms. Lagarde—named the world’s most influential woman by Forbes in 2016— is able to effectively court an increasingly bearish US President Donald Trump on the IMF’s value to America.

That said, aid-dependent supplicants like Saint Lucia should view the evolving landscape of international developmental finance as an opportunity, not a hurdle. To quote the 5th century Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu, aid-dependent nations would be wise to remember that “in the midst of chaos, there is opportunity”.

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For decades, the American economy centered around materialism, with the role of marketing and advertising revolving around connecting potential customers not only with products they needed, but also products they wanted or thought they wanted. An emerging trend is the shift towards placing value on experiences, rather than things

T

ourism experts talked tech last week as sector stakeholders met for their annual State of the Industry Conference, hosted by the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO).

The week-long event, held in Nassau, Bahamas, was a chance for everyone involved in the business of tourism to discuss challenges and trends. Unsurprisingly, the disruptive power of technology was high on the agenda with attendees and speakers brainstorming how the Caribbean can become more cutting-edge.

Experiential travel

What do today’s travellers want?

Experiences. Tourists, especially millennials, are increasingly valuing authentic activities that give them a hands-on experience in their destination. According to a 2014 Harris Poll, 78% of millennials would rather spend their money on experiences than things and, given that this demographic is expected to comprise 50% of the travelling public by 2030, the industry is shifting its focus to keep up.

This is where technology comes in, giving hospitality providers the tools to curate and customise an experience tailored to each individual guest. “Over the last few years we have seen a rise in experiential tourism,” said Casey Davy, cofounder of hospitality tech group Busy Rooms, speaking at the CTO conference. “The Caribbean has a unique opportunity with multiple experiences in one destination and that can all be curated together to offer an amazing experience to guests. There is a lot of technology out there and it is not about what it can do for you, but about how you can use that technology to improve guest experience.”

Whether creating a database for repeat visitors that pinpoints their interests and flags birthdays and anniversaries, inventing apps for selfguided tours or using geolocation services to help tourists find their way around, technology can make travel more convenient, more costeffective and more personal.

And travellers will repay the favour – those enjoying their experiences are more likely to share them across their social media platforms,

spreading the word and encouraging others to follow in their footsteps.

Turning travellers into advocates for the destination translates into easy and inexpensive destination marketing on a large scale.

According to travel marketing firm, nSight, 76% of millennials say their friends’ recommendations are top influencers for travel and 80% look at travel photos online as part of their pre-trip research.

Virtual Reality

Tourists can now get that Caribbean experience before they set foot in the islands, thanks to a boom in Virtual Reality (VR) offerings.

This technology first hit the scene in the 1950s with a rudimentary system known as ‘the sensorama’.

As multi-sensory machines became more sophisticated they’ve been used in a variety of industries including gaming, education, real estate and now tourism.

Last year, Toronto-based Winged Whale Media teamed up with the Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Authority to create a VR 360 Continued on page 5

Foreign Aid

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UK seeks reforms on overseas aid spending International development secretary wants to increase private sector’s role

By Henry Mance, FT Correspondent in London

T

he UK wants to change the international definition of government aid spending to include profits from overseas investments, in the latest effort to increase the role of the private sector in development programmes.

The move, announced by Penny Mordaunt, the international development secretary, would potentially allow the UK to reduce new aid funding from the Treasury, while still meeting its commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of national product on aid.

Labour denounced the proposal as “an outrageous distortion of the country’s overseas development programme”, which would “do nothing to end global poverty or reduce inequality”.

The UK government’s private sector investment arm, CDC Group, has made profits after tax of £1.15bn in the past five years. Under Ms Mordaunt’s proposal, such profits in future years would be counted as part of the aid budget, which was £14bn last year.

The government has wanted to reform aid spending, which was championed by former prime ministers Gordon Brown and David Cameron, but which has been attacked as wasteful by rightwing MPs. Scrapping the 0.7 per cent benchmark would require an act of parliament — and would contradict last year’s Conservative manifesto. The UK also wanted to use its aid budget to help the Caribbean islands affected by Hurricane Irma last year, but was unable to change OECD rules, which defined the territories as too wealthy to qualify as aid recipients.

Penny Mordaunt, international development secretary, hopes to reduce new aid funding from the Treasury while still meeting commitments on aid spending © Tolga Akmen/AFP

Changing the rules on what money qualified to be used for government aid spending would require the agreement of other members of the OECD, the Parisbased international organisation.

Ms Mordaunt, who took on office in November, has been looking at ways of coordinating spending with other government departments — to tackle issues such as wildlife smuggling and terrorism.

In a speech on Tuesday, she also said the UK government would work with asset managers to make it easier for British citizens to invest in poor countries. “Why

can’t British people go to their bank and invest their savings and pensions in products that will invest in the Global Goals [For Sustainable Development]?” she said.

Private investors would need “accurate information on how their money is used and the impact it delivers”.

Ms Mordaunt — a Brexiter who during the referendum campaign wrongly claimed that the UK would not be able to veto Turkish membership of the EU — used her speech to link aid spending and the vote to leave the EU. Brexit voters were not “Little

Englanders”, but believers in trade rather than government assistance, she insisted. “You’d be wrong to interpret Brexit as protectionist, nationalist or selfish — just as you’d be wrong to interpret the scepticism that some of the public have about aspects of UK aid to a lack of love or logic on their part.”

Ms Mordaunt refused to give wholehearted backing to Mrs May’s Chequers Brexit proposal. She said that Mrs May “can count on my support”, but added that “we don’t know where this is going”.

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Buying, selling, and cruising: NEW AND OLD CRUISE SHIPS IN THE CARIBBEAN

TUI Group’s Cruises segment is one of the Group’s strong growth pillars. Due to the continued increase in demand, the world’s number one tourism group is planning to expand the segment by an additional newbuild of the Mein Schiff fleet. A vessel of identical design to the new Mein Schiff 1 and Mein Schiff 2 with a capacity for up to 2,894 passengers will be built at the Finnish Meyer Turku shipyard

Continued from page 1

Because cruise ships always sail into port with confidence, glamour and a glittering itinerary of capitals they will visit, it’s easy to imagine for a moment that a cruise line’s business is perpetual, unending, and unchanging. That it is always smooth sailing, and the ships unchanging from sea to sea. Behind the scenes, though, the picture can be very different.

While a cruise line may maintain its operations seamlessly, the ships it uses at the heart of its business are often being bought new, or sold on to others. This arena of exchange is an ‘industry within an industry’ and a business sector that warrants an in-depth look as the cruise industry is only set to grow stronger in years ahead. So let’s now look at the buying and selling of cruise ships.

The Life, Death, and Resurrection of a Cruise Ship

When a cruise ship is launched for the first time it is always a huge affair. When done properly, its maiden voyage can be a party to end all parties, one that passengers still talk about years later.

Names like the Queen Mary, the QE2, and even the Love Boat AKA Island Princess have not only been iconic vessels but found their way into pop culture history. Just the same as no mention of cruise ships in pop culture can fail to list the Titanic and its epic story of disaster.

But most cruise ships are not like the Queen Mary (or thankfully) the Titanic.

Many of them are constucted, have a period of service and then, for whatever reason, find their owners no longer have use for

them in the same way. So what happens when a cruise ship leaves its first service?

Commonly they are handed down from a top tier cruise provider to a budget-focused one. Thereafter, the old cruiser may find service with an NGO or even as a car ferry.

The many uses of Carnival’s former ships Tropicale and Jubilee after their initial run of service is illustrative of this. But there is one particular group that’s made especially notable inroads in this sphere lately.

Tui Charts its Course

The Anglo-German tourism company Tui bills itself as the biggest travel group in the world. Collectively, the Tui Group has five airlines, over 300 hotels, 67,000 employees and operates in over 130 countries with its 2017 annual report detailing 18.5 billion Euros in revenue over the year prior.

All of this is undoubtedly impressive, yet it’s Tui’s most recent ventures in the cruise sector that represent such an interesting new chapter for its business, and the Caribbean region it operates in. Presently the group has 16 cruise ships sailing in its fleet, and its recent moves in this space provide a great insight into the comings and goings of cruise ships on the market.

It’s now expected that Tui will have 18 ships by 2023. It has pursued its strategy to become a heavyweight in the cruise industry by not only commissioning new ships like the Mein Schiff 1 and 2, but also by acquiring the sole ownership of the Golden Era thanks to the end of a joint venture with SkySea, and by the purchasing of the Legend of the Seas by Royal Caribbean.

The cruise industry is a growing one,

and it can be said this is just good business for Tui. But for those in the Caribbean watching with a view to the next ship in port – and what it may mean for business locally – the expansion of Tui can be seen as illustrative of the growth in the cruise sector as a whole. Yet this growth shouldn’t be regarded as totally absolute or unstoppable locally.

The Evolution of the Cruise Industry

Beyond the business of buying and selling cruise ships alone, there are short-term and

long-term trends emerging in this sector.

The rise of the Asian region as an economic powerhouse is set to see greater purchasing power and disposal income grow across its residents.

That means an uptick in cruises in Asia and beyond it. Just as cruise providers identify an opportunity to expand here – and can look to Asia-only tours that meet this demand without changing operations elsewhere – it’s also clear that some of the pros of this trend (more tourists from Asia visiting the Caribbean and cruising) will also bring a greater competition in some

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areas.

Similarly, the way in which younger generations travel will pose new challenges for cruising long-term.

Stats show many younger travellers often seek a short and luxurious trip, such as a weekend getaway at a 5-star resort, over a longer one that’ll see them away for a month. The reasons for this can vary – whether its reluctance to use all their vacation days in one go, less disposable income, or other factors – but it means that as generations shift, the appeal of intercontinental cruises may be tested.

Beyond this, there is also the rise of digital content, as virtual reality and augmented reality (as seen in 2016’s hugely popular smash hit game Pokémon GO) come to the fore. There’s no suggestion here that emerging tech like this could ever outright replace the feeling of arriving on a cruise ship on a sunny day at Pointe Seraphine here in Saint Lucia, just instead that cruise providers will need to consider how to best introduce the new tech in a way that does not simply ignore it, but embraces it, and sees it enhance the cruising experience.

Sailing with the Wind

While a cruise line may maintain its operations seamlessly, the ships it uses at the heart of its business are often being bought new, or sold on to others

The buying and selling of cruise ships is not a new process. But within the context of a time of great change not only for the cruise industry but the Caribbean as a whole, the ‘industry within an industry’ offers us a glimpse of where its major players identify future growth trends, and commercial opportunities.

A greater understanding of this can benefit not only the cruise ship industry, but the wider tourism sector in the region. Just as the selling on of cruise ships and the buying of them by other providers can not only help sustain existing routes and related businesses, but build them stronger as an old boat gets a new lease of life. Local business that can build on the growth of the cruise industry will surely welcome every ship to port, whether on its first voyage or its 1000th.

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Modernising tourism Continued from page 2

A 2018 national study funded by Expedia and the Center for Generational Kinetics found that 57% of Americans are currently saving money specifically for travel. But this is even higher for millennials, 65% of whom say they are currently saving for travel

experience where users could explore the island’s beaches, swim with stingrays or take a helicopter flight through a VR headset. The headsets launched at the International Travel and Tourism Show in Montreal, giving travel agents and potential visitors a taste of what the destination has to offer. The response was huge, according to Edouard Limon, Winged Whale’s Creative Director, who said: “It was quite something. To have not just digital content, but to give users an immersive experience and entice, educate and inspire them to feel like they were in Antigua and Barbuda.”

The private sector has also made moves towards VR, with cruise giant Royal Caribbean among the first to utilise the technology in its advertising and marketing strategy. In 2017 the group used HoliDeck VR software to give potential guests a look at the facilities and activities onboard their vessels and, this year, the company unveiled the Spectrum of the Seas, set to sail in 2019, which includes the Sky Pad, a VR bungee trampoline. Spectrum’s predecessor, Quantum of the Seas, boasts virtual balcony staterooms so accommodations in the interior of the ship can still have an ocean view.

The VR headset market alone is worth around US$7bn annually and 70% of marketers say using 360 video increases the level of engagement among their client base. “The technology is being embraced and the results are there. Times are changing and we are forced to change with them,” said Limon.

Working together

People are at the heart of tourism, which has long been considered a business built on relationships. Travellers want to connect with locals, locals enjoy meeting and welcoming visitors. In this kind of environment, it’s difficult to see how machines can replace human interaction.

Davy suggested that technology can complement rather than compete with the human side of the business, and added: “Let the technology do the heavy lifting and humans can get back to interacting with guests and providing that service.

Experiment [with the technology], try something new and be open.”

Ultimately, tourism doesn’t have a choice. It must engage with the next wave of technology or risk being left behind.

The CTO marked World Tourism Day last month and CTO General Secretary Hugh Riley had a message for the industry: “It is our duty to explore and introduce new tools and capabilities. In the coming months the CTO will continue to develop an agenda which encourages and assists member states’ efforts to create digitally-enhanced tourism services via entrepreneurship and innovation.

“Tourism must bring benefits to all members of society. Emerging digital technologies provide a range of new tools that can tackle challenges faced throughout our member states, increase profitability and bring about positive change for stakeholders that will improve the quality of life for all Caribbean people.”

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Antigua & Barbuda PM takes WTO trade dispute to UN Prime Minister of Antigua & Barbuda Mr. Gaston Browne addressing the 73rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly. Browne emphasized that a few privileged nations are making decisions that impact the lives of billions of people, noting that the General Assembly must be revitalised to become a place for action and results

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ifteen years after Antigua and Barbuda won the World Trade Organisation (WTO) arbitration against the United States, the Caribbean country’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne lamented that the nation is still waiting on the billions of dollars in damages yet to be paid.

After building up an Internet gambling industry to replace declining tourism revenues, Antigua and Barbuda was shut out of the world’s biggest gambling market.

The twin-island nation took its case to the WTO in 2003, eventually winning the right to compensation of $21 million annually, after the WTO judges upheld its complaint that

U.S. laws were discriminatory.

Speaking at the recent United Nations General Assembly, Browne noted that the WTO is not a perfect mechanism in solving trade disputes. He added that the body cannot enforce its rulings, and Antigua and Barbuda continues to wait for an acceptable settlement.

“The U.S. economy is 20,000 times larger than Antigua and Barbuda’s.

Compensation for the injury to my small country is less than 0.008 per cent of one year of the U.S.’s GDP. The injury that was done to my country now amounts to 20 per cent of its GDP. No country can easily absorb that severe blow which hurts our economy, sets back our infrastructural development and constrains the provisions of employment and advances in health and education,” Browne said.

The prime minister said that the ability of the people of his small island nation to survive this ordeal, while continuing to thrive, speaks volumes to their resilience.

He added that the discussions about global financial reform should not be centred only around a few world leaders.

During the address to the 73rd General Assembly, Browne called for the inclusion

of all United Nations member-states.

He said that only a few privileged nations are making decisions that impact the livelihoods of billions.

“Arbitrary rules set by unrepresentative bodies for their own narrow purposes have no legitimacy in the world. Enforcement of those arbitrary rules by threat and sanctions of the mighty is not legitimate; it results only in grumbling and reluctant acquiescence that lacks enduring support.

Might by enforcers does not make actions right,” Browne added.

He noted that the General Assembly must be revitalised if it is to make any important mark on the people of the world.

The prime minister also warned that unless the General Assembly is made relevant, the actions of the Security Council and of other organisations will be endured but not embraced.

“I hereby make the call once again for a reinvigorated and relevant United Nations General Assembly. I recognise that it would not serve the interests of the powerful who fear the expression of dissent and the call for political rights that many of them demand in other countries,” he said.

The Saint Lucia Registry of Companies & Intellectual Property Company Incorporations Name: Caribbean Construciton and Equipment Ltd.

Name: Edge Marketing Inc.

Description: Construction

Description: Advertising and promoting; mass

Directors: Francis Pierre

communication

Date Incorporated: 14-May-18 Chamber: Pierre, Mondesir & Associates, Saint Lucia

Directors: Lisa Joahil Date Incorporated: 20-Sep-18 Chamber: Peter I. Foster & Associates Chambers, Saint Lucia

Name: The Fleet Management Company Ltd. Description: Fleet maintenance

Name: Troi Femmes Artisan Products Ltd.

Directors: Martin Powlette

Description: Artisanal products

Date Incorporated: 18-Sep-18

Directors: Maxine Nicholas; Michele Ince; Camilla

Chamber: SEDU, Saint Lucia

Name: Ravine Doree Ltd.

Sukumaran Date Incorporated: 21-Sep-18 Chamber: Lorraine Debra Glace Chambers, Saint Lucia

Description: Property holding company

Name: K&M Produce Ltd.

Directors: Niameki Charles

Description: Exporting of local produce

Date Incorporated: 18-Sep-18

Directors: Julian Auguste; Margaret Auguste

Chamber: Brickstone Law Chambers, Saint Lucia

Date Incorporated: 21-Sep-18 Chamber: SEDU, Saint Lucia

Name: Concrete Designs Ltd. Description: Construction and concrete products

Name: Asia Joy Ltd. Description: Imports and exports

Directors: Daniel Cepal

Directors: Deepak Punjabi; Dilip Khushalani

Date Incorporated: 19-Sep-18

Date Incorporated: 21-Sep-18

Chamber: Pierre, Mondesir & Associates, Saint Lucia

Chamber: Stanley Felix Chambers, Saint Lucia

US Politics & Policy

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US Senate passes $60bn foreign development bill Rare bipartisan move aimed at countering China’s growing global influence

By FT Correspondents David Pilling in Port Louis and James Politi in Washington

T

he Senate has passed a bill that will create a $60bn agency to invest in developing countries in what has been sold to Donald Trump, the US president, as a way of countering China’s growing global influence.

In a rare spirit of bipartisanship, on Wednesday the Senate passed the Better Utilization of Investments Leading to Development (Build) Act by 93 votes to 6.

The bill, which was included in legislation to reauthorise the Federal Aviation Administration, could reach the president’s desk as early as this week, people with close knowledge of its progress said. The White House has already indicated that the president will sign it into law.

The Build Act has been packaged as vital to counter what has been described as China’s “debt trap diplomacy” — ensnaring developing countries by loading them up with unpayable loans.

Until a year ago, the US Overseas Private Investment Corporation, which makes loans to businesses in the developing world, had been in danger of being scrapped. Although it makes commercial investments and turns a profit, the Trump administration had viewed it as dispensing aid and what many Republicans described as “corporate welfare”.

Aubrey Hruby, co-founder of the Africa Expert Network, said that Ray Washburne, Opic president and chief executive, had changed the narrative by persuading legislators that the organisation was an essential tool for

This administration is very governed by the view that the US needs to be more competitive vis-à-vis China. This is something that those of us in Washington who care about EMs, business and US competitiveness have been working on for years - Aubrey Hruby, Africa Expert Network Hambantota port in Sri Lanka cost £1.3bn to build, using Chinese finance: the new US bill is designed to counteract this soft power © AFP

US commercial diplomacy.

“This administration is very governed by the view that the US needs to be more competitive vis-à-vis China,” she said. “This is something that those of us in Washington who care about emerging markets, business and American competitiveness have been working on for years.”

Mr Washburne said: “This is a huge shake-up.” Speaking from Cartagena, Colombia, where he had watched the Senate vote on his mobile phone, he said an enhanced Opic offered “a financially sound alternative to the state-directed initiatives pursued by China that have left many developing countries deep in debt”.

It would increase the US’s soft power and help it to bring jobs and stability to countries that might otherwise be a danger to US national security.

Beijing has strongly rejected claims that it uses debt to gain political supplicants, arguing that it has lent to developing countries in the spirit of cooperation and trade promotion. China has financed tens of billions of dollars of infrastructure in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Republican senators have accused Beijing of gaining control of Hambantota port in Sri Lanka after Colombo was unable to repay its debts.

Opic will now be folded into a new agency called the International Development Finance Corporation, which will incorporate some functions of USAID. For the first time, it will be able to take equity stakes in what advocates say will allow it to invest more effectively and match its European counterparts.

“It not only ensures our existence — which wasn’t assured a year ago — but gives us equity authority and doubles our size,” said Mr Washburne.

The bill won support from both parties.

“The Build Act will begin to move us away from providing direct assistance with mixed results and instead help countries become more self-reliant while saving taxpayers millions of dollars,” said Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Chris Coons, a top Democrat on the panel, said he was “thrilled” the bill was heading towards Mr Trump’s desk, adding: “This investment will allow us to reduce poverty in areas that are critical to our national security, compete with Chinese influence in the developing world, and help US businesses grow and succeed.”

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ST. KITTS AND NEVIS BECOMES THE FIRST INDEPENDENT STATE IN THE ECCU TO ACHIEVE 60 PER CENT DEBT-TO-GDP RATIO

By Office of the Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis

At the 73rd Session of the UN General Assembly, Prime Minister of Saint Kitts and Nevis Timothy Harris called for urgent reforms to make the United Nations more responsive to the needs and concerns of Member States, particularly small island developing states.

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asseterre, St. Kitts – The twin-island Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis continues to punch way above its weight under the leadership of the Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris-led Team Unity administration, becoming the very first independent state in the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) to bring its debt-to-GDP ratio in line with the international benchmark of 60 per cent.

Additionally, St. Kitts and Nevis achieved this important milestone 12 years ahead of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) target date of 2030. At the end of December 2014, the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio stood at 78 percent.

Prime Minister Harris, while addressing the nation during his press conference on October 4, noted that this is a remarkable achievement for St. Kitts and Nevis, particularly when one takes into account the fact that the country’s total public debt rose to an estimated US$1.05 billion: about 200 per cent of GDP under the previous Douglas-led administration. (Source of figures: IMF Country Report No. 11/270) In explaining how the Federation got to this point, Prime Minister Harris said, “In practical terms, we paid off the inherited outstanding debt to the IMF of $117 million and today we are still in surplus. In practical terms too, we got to this milestone by making a substantial payment of $36.2 million on the land for debt swap arrangement with National Bank. We achieved this milestone by paying down a total of EC$25.1 million on the amount owed to the Government

“Here in St. Kitts and Nevis, we are performing in superlative terms relative to the rest of our peers in the OECS, CARICOM and indeed the rest of the world,” said Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris of Venezuela and of course clearing other substantial debts of the former irresponsible regime.”

The Minister of Finance further noted that the Team Unity Administration was able to bring the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio in line with the international benchmark of 60 per cent in spite of its comprehensive response in the aftermath of two category 5 hurricanes that necessitated unbudgeted expenditure by various ministries.

“This Team Unity Administration paid double salaries back to back in 2016, 2017 and we honoured salary increases in 2016 and yet we are in surplus,” Prime Minister Harris added.

Dr. Harris disclosed that the double salary was paid a total of six times between 1995 and 2014 under the former administration and twice in less than 4 years under a Team Unity Government.

“Here in St. Kitts and Nevis, we are performing in superlative terms relative to the rest of our peers in the OECS, CARICOM and indeed the rest of the world,” said Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris

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