{"id":1726,"date":"2017-06-08T11:15:09","date_gmt":"2017-06-08T15:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stluciasimplybeautiful.com\/v1\/?p=1726"},"modified":"2017-06-08T12:05:33","modified_gmt":"2017-06-08T16:05:33","slug":"investment-opportunities-in-st-lucia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stluciasimplybeautiful.com\/v1\/2017\/06\/08\/investment-opportunities-in-st-lucia\/","title":{"rendered":"Investment Opportunities in St. Lucia"},"content":{"rendered":"

November 18th 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vieux Fort, Saint Lucia<\/p>\n

I am humbled by the opportunity afforded me to be a member of the team of contributors to the New York Edition of the – GUYANA CHRONICLE newspaper. I am Guyanese by birth, and I left Guyana at the age of 35 and found a home away from home in Saint Lucia.
\nIn spite of my 38 years of travel and living in six countries, apart from my homeland, I remain an active member of the Diaspora seeking at all times to contribute to the advancement of Guyana. I speak to an audience of very special people who contribute to the social and economic wellbeing of fellow Guyanese through visits, investments, and remittances to family and friends.
\nFrom my base in St. Lucia, the headquarters of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) comprising of the following island states, *Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, *British Virgin Islands, Dominica, St. Kitts and Nevis, Grenada, *Montserrat, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and *Martinique (*English and French Territories). I am uniquely positioned to share with my readers, the social and economic perspectives of the sub region and the wider CARICOM region, divided in Less Developed and More Developed nations. Details of the work being undertaken by the OECS and CARICOM can be pursued at http:\/\/www.oecs.org and www.caricom.org respectively.
\nAfter almost five years of absence from involvement in my favourite pastime, I am back writing. \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcHarris at Large\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 graced the columns of newspapers and magazines in the region and internationally for fifteen years, with almost 400 articles archived at www.stluciasimplybeautiful.com.
\nWhatever investment option you prefer, going forward, it will be my task to expose my readers to doing business in the small island states of the Caribbean. Welcome to St. Lucia and the rest of the English Speaking Caribbean, whether, it is Business or Pleasure, or a combination of both, St. Lucia is the place to be. To prove the point there are some very outstanding Guyanese who have made St. Lucia their home and are contributing to the social and economic fabric of the St. Lucian society.
\nThe month of November 2016 has been declared by the Government as Business Month. Very early in the month of activities, an impressive conference was held on November 2, 2016 highlighting alternative financing sources for micro, small and medium enterprises, where participants were introduced to innovative ways of financing start ups in the form of \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcAngel Investing and Crowd Funding\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. There are Angel investors in Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad, and a regional Crowd Funding platform is scheduled to be launched in March of 2017. Crowd Funding is an area of investment ideally suited to investors of the Caribbean Diaspora.
\nThe St. Lucia Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture at its Luncheon Meeting held on November 4, 2016 at the Coco Palm Conference Centre played host to Mr. Timothy Antoine, Governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) which is headquartered in St. Kitts (www.eccb-centralbank.org). Hereunder are some highlights of the Governor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s presentation:
\n1. ECCB is a Non Deposit Institution with excess of 10 billion USD in assets.
\n2. Pursuing options to establish a Caribbean Bank in the USA.
\n3. St. Lucia contributes 25% to the OECS economy.
\n4. St. Lucia is being challenged to continue to lead the economies of the small island states of the OECS.
\n5. St. Lucia must do more to improve its ranking in relation to the World Bank Report on \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcEase of Doing Business\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. However, St. Lucia continues to be #1 in the OECS. (http:\/\/www.doingbusiness.org\/data\/exploreeconomies\/st-lucia)
\n6. St. Lucia is currently paying approximately 0.75 cents on the dollar in Payroll, Pensions and Debt Servicing.
\nIn spite of the facts stated above, St. Lucia is still a great place to live, work and offers great opportunity for new investments. The Government which assumed office on the 6th of June, 2016 has already established itself as an Investor friendly Government. Hence there is adequate growth potential.
\nSt. Lucia and Guyana have long standing social and economic ties. There was a time when Guyana was home to St. Lucians seeking social and financial advancement. Madia in the interior of Guyana is famous for its St. Lucian Creole Festivals such as \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcLa Rose\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. In recent years, the table turned and St. Lucians have reciprocated. Guyanese are welcomed to work and do business in St. Lucia.
\nI invite you to explore available opportunities in St. Lucia and settle for a piece of the rock. St. Lucia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s entertainment calendar is unmatched in the OECS. Its culture is rich, check out the several festivals at www.stluciafolk.org. There are two major events, St. Lucia Jazz and Arts Festival \u00e2\u20ac\u201c www.stlucia.org\/jazz-festival and St. Lucia Carnival \u00e2\u20ac\u201c www.stluciancarnival.com. The fun never stops in St. Lucia. Every Friday night, there is a Street Party like no other at Gros Islet in the north of the island.
\nI recently launched my latest book \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Winning Strategies for Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which will be on line shortly. In this book consisting of 94 pages with 22 chapters, I shared over 55 years of my private sector involvement.
\nWe have lots to share in this column; I look forward to hearing from you.
\nRemember always to Keep the Faith, knowing that God is in Charge!
\nEdward Harris
\nFreelance Journalist, Business Consultant, Author\/Publisher
\nEmail: jobfreelife72@yahoo.com
\nWebsite: www.stluciasimplybeautiful.com (Archive)
\nFacebook Page: www.facebook.com\/edharrisbiz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

November 18th 2016 Vieux Fort, Saint Lucia I am humbled by the opportunity afforded me to be a member of the team of contributors to the New York Edition of the – GUYANA CHRONICLE newspaper. I am Guyanese by birth, and I left Guyana at the age of 35 and found a home away from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stluciasimplybeautiful.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1726"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stluciasimplybeautiful.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stluciasimplybeautiful.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stluciasimplybeautiful.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stluciasimplybeautiful.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1726"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stluciasimplybeautiful.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1727,"href":"https:\/\/stluciasimplybeautiful.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1726\/revisions\/1727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stluciasimplybeautiful.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stluciasimplybeautiful.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stluciasimplybeautiful.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}