Just about five months after it was launched here, the first phase of the St. Lucia chapter of the Caribbean Growth Forum is being completed.
The pro-growth venture, which is intended to address the technical and political issues affecting business development, will be completed at a regional workshop in Bahamas. That meeting began on June 24 and culminates today, June 25, 2013.
A St. Lucian delegation headed by Deputy Prime Minister Phillip J Pierre are in attendance.
The Caribbean Growth Forum is a multi-stakeholders participatory initiative, according to a release.
“The Forum provides a platform for dialogue on growth challenges with a view to identifying implementable solutions that inspire actions aimed at inducing growth and creating jobs in the region,” the release said.
The first phase of the forum was launched here on January 22, 2013 by Prime Minister Dr. Kenny Anthony. This followed a six-week “extensive consultative process” with private and public sector stakeholders in the areas of logistics and connectivity, investment climate and skills and connectivity.
Reports from these meetings are expected to be presented at today’s workshop.
“At the end of this regional workshop, the Saint Lucian delegation will return with action plans that are finalized for projects and activities that will feed into our National Development Plan for implementation, thereby starting the second phase of the Caribbean Growth Forum initiative,” the release said.
This initiative is funded by The World Bank (WB), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Caribbean Development Bank, United Kingdom Agency for International Development (DFID) and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the release stated.