St Lucia: Economic Development Department to launch Medium-Term Development Strategy soon

St Lucia: The Medium-Term Development Strategy (MTDS) 2021-2026 will be launched soon by the Department of Economic Development. It will replace the 2020-2023 versions. The department stated that this would be counted as a proactive change in the country‘s socio-economic environment because of COVID-19. It will also cushion external shocks, including rising fuel prices due to the Ukraine invasion.

“I am a firm believer in planning and, in particular, medium-term planning so that we break out of this short-term cycle where we focus only on the electoral level and that political cycle. Our countries do need to embed economic diversification strategy, and it has to take on the long haul perspective,” Keith Nurse, Principal SALCC.

The stakeholder engagement for updating St Lucia’s Medium-Term Strategy (MTDS) 2021 – 2026 got off to an encouraging start with stakeholders from the public and private sectors, NGOs, and Civil Society Organisations. Claudius Emmanuel – Permanent Secretary in the Department of Economic Development, said due to significant changes in the socio-economic landscape locally, regionally and internationally, and considering the priorities for the new administration, it has become necessary to update and strengthen the MTDS over a longer period.

“Resilience to climate change and resilience from a financial point of view is very important imperatives to make the country competitive. As we know, as a small island developing state, we are vulnerable, and so to the extent that we can adapt and mitigate it would redound to our robustness as a country going forward because in the context of Covid and what’s happening globally, the Ukraine war, for example, we are getting negative impulses in terms of rising prices. So we must ensure that the necessary fiscal space is being safeguarded and that we remain competitive.”

The MTDS 2021-2026 is scheduled to be presented to policymakers in November 2022 and will replace the 2020-2023 version.