Saint Lucia
ALSO KNOW AS
Helen of the West
LOCATION
Saint Lucia is located in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean. Part of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north of the islands of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and south of Martinique.
STATUS
Independent Republic – 22 February 1979
HISTORY
Amerindians were the first inhabitants. French colonisation began in 1650 and the struggle for possession between the French and English ended in 1815 with the island becoming an English colony. It gained independence in 1979.
MOTTO
The Land, The People, The Light
CAPITAL
Castries
CURRENCY
Eastern Caribbean Dollar (EC$)
AIRPORT
Hewanorra International (Vieux Fort), George F. L. Charles International (Vigie)
Country Programme Status
The Saint Lucia CAP, valued at US$6.1 million (EC$16.47 million), was designed to enhance private sector competitiveness, including youth entrepreneurship. The programme has four components:
Support of Small and Medium Sized Enterprise (SME) Development
Support of small and medium sized enterprise (SME) development through provision of a concessional loan of US$3.72 million (EC$10.0 million) was provided to the Saint Lucia Development Bank (SLDB) for on-lending to the private sector. The immediate output of disbursing US$3.72 million to the SLDB was completed on April 30, 2017. As at December 31, 2017, SLDB had approved US$4.5 million (EC$12.2 million) in sub-loans financed from initial advance made by the CDF and re-flows.
Establishment of the Trade Export Promotion Agency (TEPA)
Establishment of the Trade Export Promotion Agency (TEPA), which was financed by a CDF grant of US$1.0 million (EC$2.7 million), to promote increased exports in Saint Lucia.
The project was completed and closed out in 2015 with the objectives satisfactorily met and receiving a very positive assessment from the CDF’s independent evaluator. TEPA is now established statutory agency providing export promotion and related services to Saint Lucian private sector with sole objective of increasing exports.
Support for the Youth Entrepreneurship Agri-Entrepreneurship Project (YAEP)
Support for the Youth Entrepreneurship Agri-Entrepreneurship Project (YAEP) was financed by a CDF grant of US$1.37 million (EC$3.70 million). The grant provided training, tools, land preparation and infrastructure development support to empower 150 young entrepreneurs to become full time self-employed farmers.
At end-2017, there were 75 trained young entrepreneurs. Many were already actively involved in greenhouse, aquaponics and open-field farming. During 2017, it was determined that several entrepreneurs were being constrained by lack of working capital.
CDF approved the reallocation of US$150,000 (EC$405,000) saved from other project lines to establish a revolving working capital support fund to be operationalised by the SLDB and managed by the Ministry of Agriculture. An MOU governing the use of the funds was jointly signed between the Ministry of Agriculture and the SLDB in December 2017.
Support for the Reduction of the Carbon Footprint at the Pigeon Island National Landmark
Support for the reduction of the carbon footprint at the Pigeon Island National Landmark was funded by a grant to the Saint Lucia National Trust of €0.07 million (EC$0.21 million) from the resources contributed by the Government of Finland.
Contractual arrangements between the parties were protracted and resolution was obtained in late 2017. The project was expected to be completed by mid-2018.
