Nevis witnesses 4.9% increase in jobs between January to March 2022: Mark Brantley

St Kitts and Nevis: Premier of Nevis and leader of Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM) – Mark Brantley, has now shared the success of the construction sector in Nevis.

He stated that construction sector booming in Nevis.

Premier Brantley took social media and stated that the Nevis Island Administration (NIA) saw some welcomed job numbers from official Social Security data for Nevis showed that the number of employees in Nevis grew by 2.9 percent, the number of jobs grew by 4.9 percent, gross monthly wages grew by 7.3 percent, and gross monthly wages per employee grew by 4.3 percent over the period January to March 2022.

As we recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, the CCM-led NIA has designed policies to stimulate the construction sector leading to a boom in construction activity on Nevis. Under the COVID recovery policy of CCM, all construction with materials valued over EC$30,000 benefits from exemptions from Customs Duties and Customs Service Charge.

The Ministry of Finance has processed some 90 applications under this policy. From January to June 2022, the Department of Physical Planning approved some 103 new building permits. In addition, there were 98 new construction start-ups for January to May 2022, consisting of 74 new properties and 24 renovations to existing properties.

There are currently 166 active construction sites on the island of Nevis.

This is certainly one of the policy prescriptions designed by the NIA Cabinet, which has worked beautifully.

The policy was to end on June 30, 2022, but as a consequence of the tremendous success thus far, the Cabinet has determined that it be extended for another six months, from July 1 to December 31, 2022. We invite all those thinking of building or renovating to take full advantage of this policy.

This is an excellent example of what happens when the noise and focus on developing island and people is ignored.