St. Kitts and Nevis and St. Maarten Prime Ministers talk at PJIA

St. Kitts and Nevis’ Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas(right) and Prime Minister of St. Maarten, the Hon. Sarah Wescott-Williams in talks at the Princess Juliana International Airport in St. Maarten on Friday morning.

BASSETERRE,ST. KITTS, APRIL 21ST 2012 (CUOPM) – St. Kitts and Nevis’ Prime Minister the Right Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas and his Dutch St. Maarten counterpart, the Hon. Sarah Wescott-Williams on Friday discussed a number of issues affecting the economies of both countries.

During the meeting at the VIP Lounge of St. Maarten’s Princess Juliana International Airport the St. Kitts and Nevis leader updated that island’s first female Head of Government on the status of the International Monetary Fund-backed new home-grown economic programme, and the outcome of the debt restructuring exercise, within the framework of this new programme, and which was concluded just two days ago.

Again the Creditors both external and domestic came in for high commendations from Prime Minister Douglas who highlighted that the enormous success in this exercise was due to the support from the staff of the Ministries of both the Federal Government and the Nevis Island Administration, led by the Financial Secretary, her Deputy and the Trustee; the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the St. Kitts-based Eastern Caribbean Stock Exchange (ECSE).

Prime Ministers Douglas and Wescott-Williams looked at the growth prospects of both economies for the succeeding quarters of this fiscal year having the task of overcoming the prolonged economic crises and growing the economies this year and beyond.

Both Prime Ministers highlighted the growth sectors that are being targeted and recognised the common approach towards diversifying the tourism product especially in the area of medical tourism, and exploring new destination markets in Latin America and the Middle East given the interest shown in the St. Kitts and Nevis Citizenship by Investment Programme from residents in the United Arab Emirates and other regional countries.

Prime Ministers Douglas and Wescott-Williams who have developed an excellent working relationship over the years since they have been in office, also discussed the need to attract more foreign direct investment from non-traditional markets highlighting in particular Asian and Latin American, especially Brazilian markets.