By Pauline Waruguru

~~Adz:Left~~Thriving world economies are governed by sound trade policies, Chris Martin, who presented a paper on behalf of the Nevis Chamber of Commerce branch told participants attending the historical economic summit held at the Four Seasons Resort on Wednesday.

“It is always a good idea to study what successful countries are doing and probe the work of economists and planners … and then try to copy the good examples. What we have found is that they use trade policies to generate means for what we now want to do now. For simplicity sake, trade policies are the ideas of constituents and the strategies to implement them,” he said.

“Traditionally, forums like this one, which discusses Economic issues, focus mainly on Government Finances and creation of the Annual Budget. That focus is on how to allocate taxes for the running of Govt Depts., i.e. how to spend money. And there is some discussion of Fiscal Planning. Usually not much recognition is given to how that money is raised and where it comes from,” Mr Martin said.

“There is much talk about a lot of new investment on the island in the tourism sector: Newfound Development with a at least 150 rooms, another project on the upper pieces of the Pinney’s land, more condos etc over at Herbert Beach and perhaps more on other places in Nevis. We have nearly full employment right now,” Mr Martin said.

He posed the following questions:

Has the NIA considered where the labour is going to come from to build and maintain this increased development? Does the NIA have a plan expand its capacity to cope with more people, roads/hospital/schools/police/water/electricity/etc? What are the possible social implications of an influx of more immigrants?

What does the NIA mean when it says “enhance the economy”? If you mean make it bigger I really think we need to consider the social implications and why is bigger better?

Mr Martin further said: “Let's protect what very few if any islands have and not try to copy the bigger islands--stay true to our product. How about making it work better and safer. Money and effort put into improved schools, electricity, water, policing, road safety, cleanliness of the Island, work habits of people and better products in the stores.”~~Adz:Right~~

Mr Martin said quicker protocols ought to be enhanced on the following::Aliens Land Holding Licenses, Building permits both to local and foreign potential homeowners and Developers and Business licenses “these applications are fuel that help drives this economy,” he said.

Other challenges that Mr Martin posed to the Nevis Island Administration (NIA) was price control on fruits and vegetables.  The recommendation of the Chamber of Commerce, he said was the establishment of a Planning and Priorities Committee comprised of members from both public and private sector, whose function would be to discuss and decide on the various capital projects to be implemented. The advantage here is that there would be a more broad-based consensus and buy-in by the local private sector in particular, to the investment initiatives being contemplated by the government.

Contractual Services provided by the private sector to NIA and Federal Governments should be awarded based on tender. This can have the effect of promoting efficiency by the provider, and also facilitate for a review process of the service by the recipient. In other words Government would ensure that they are getting value for monies spent on services, and providers would be aware that they have no sacred hold on government as a source of business for indefinite periods.

“On of the biggest challenges that face businesses in the Nevis Economy are that of high custom duties and taxes on the items needed for daily business operations. While the breaks are available on equipment and other extraordinary business items which are imported from time to time that is not enough. Custom duty rates and other taxes should be drastically reduced. This will affect prices of goods produced and sold within the economy and stimulate economic growth and more local investment,” Mr Martin told participants. 

“Coupled with this, government must develop more amicable relationships with the private sector (especially small businesses) so as to ensure that a higher percentage of them pay their income taxes and do so on time,” Mr Martin said.