The Government of Saint Lucia attended the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group earlier this month.

The meetings brought together central bankers, ministers for finance and development, private sector executives, civil society, the media and academia to discuss issues of global concern. These included the world economic outlook, global financial stability, poverty eradication, jobs and growth, economic development, aid effectiveness, and climate change.

Speaking prior to the meeting, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Economic Development, Philip Dalsou, said the meeting will provide an avenue for Saint Lucia to seek various developmental opportunities.

“There will be an opportunity to meet with other agencies to discuss possible project proposals that we can present to these agencies like the Kuwaiti Fund, the United Arab Emirates and others. So the meeting itself will be an opportunity for us to hear about some of the latest developments. In terms of growth rate, we’ll get the forecast from the IMF for the world economy 2019-2020, and what are some of the risks that are being presented. We’ll also be hearing from the World Bank itself on some of the more topical issues. I’m sure disaster resilience will come up again.”

Approximately 15,000 to 18,000 delegates attended the meeting in 2018. The main topics of discussion centered on global economic issues. Saint Lucia was represented by Prime Minister, Hon. Allen Chastanet; Minister for Economic Development, Guy Joseph; Permanent Secretary for Economic Development, Philip Dalsou; and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Cointhia Thomas.

Mr. Dalsou had previously highlighted the areas of priority for the Government of Saint Lucia.

“Saint Lucia is also looking at how it can fund some of its infrastructural requirements from concessional funding. That’s at low interest rates and long grace periods for repayment. There are issues that we face in many different sectors, infrastructure, the roads, the schools and these are some of the big issues. The government has indicated six priority areas that they would want to look at in terms of moving forward. These are not exclusive, but these are the major areas of priority, health, education, crime, tourism, agriculture and infrastructure.”

The meetings were held from Oct. 12 – 14 in Bali, Indonesia.