Accompanied by Infrastructure Minister Hon. Stephenson King and Foreign Affairs Minister Hon. Alva Baptiste, the Prime Minister says this meeting will have tangible benefits for the people of Saint Lucia in the energy, agriculture, and trade sectors.

“There will be housing assistance and fertiliser for our farmers. We dealt with Infrastructure, for materials and road construction. There will be many tangible benefits. We are expecting some results very very soon. In fact, the fertiliser should be here by the end of November,” the Prime Minister announced on Monday, October 9th, 2023.

Hon. Alva Baptiste says the governments of Saint Lucia and Venezuela signed many different agreements for collaboration on various issues that plague Saint Lucia today. “We agreed to cooperate on a multiplicity of levels, including agriculture, education, energy…we proceeded to sign an MOU to cooperate in those very clear and practical areas that will impact positively on our country. We also signed a clear roadmap to how we can actually deal with the air services agreement, that will facilitate a Venezuelan air carrier to operate in our jurisdiction,” he said.

This new agreement, he adds, will help develop the island’s tourism resilience. “This will provide a framework for both tourism and trade between [the two countries]. As a matter of fact, many years ago, we had [a programme where] speculators were taken from Saint Lucia across to Margarita and back. So this is nothing new.”

Hon. Stephenson King also outlined the Venezuelan government’s commitment to helping redevelop Saint Lucia’s road infrastructure. He says the Venezuelans will provide a mineral that is essential for the production of asphalt. This, King says, will help the country rehabilitate its roads.

“In that regard, we’ve made an appeal for consideration of bitumen, an element used in the production of asphalt. They’ve gone even further to provide, if necessary, granular material for the purpose of [building roads]. This means road construction will see some form of decrease in the cost of road construction,” King said. The Minister added that the Venezuelans will be assisting the government with social and affordable housing.

The Prime Minister says Saint Lucia will continue its collaboration with the people of Venezuela for the benefit of Saint Lucia. Since the first-ever official visit from a Saint Lucian delegation to the South American country in 1979, successive administrations have kept cordial relationships with the government.