CASTRIES,
St. Lucia, Wednesday December 5, 2012 - Taiwan is providing EC$4.8 million (One
EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) to St. Lucia to fund short and long term job
programmes on the island.
“We
have agreed on a clear procedure where such programmes are financed by the
government of Taiwan. Both sides will agree on the programmes the government of
Taiwan wishes to finance and we will indicate our priorities.
“We
will present them with a detailed costing of the various projects in advance so
that there will be a clear sense of how much will be spent on each project,”
Prime Minister Dr. Kenny Anthony said after receiving the cheque from Taiwan’s Ambassador James Chang.
Anthony
said the funds would be used for projects throughout the island and would help
reduce the employment situation here.
“We
have agreed that programmes funded by Taiwan must apply to all of the islands
17 constituencies. No constituency government or opposition must be denied the
opportunity for funding for projects, because Taiwan is a friend of all of St.
Lucia,” Anthony said.
Anthony,
who is also finance minister, said that a special account has been created in
the Ministry of Finance to manage the funds for local projects funded by
Taiwan.
He
said this was “a radical approach, a different approach” to dealing with funds
from Taiwan to the government of St. Lucia compared to what existed in the
past.
Prime
Minister Anthony had in the past been critical of his predecessor, Stephenson
King, over the disbursement of Taiwanese funds for constituency projects.
Anthony
had claimed the funds should not have gone to individual government ministers
for projects in their constituencies.
The
Kenny Anthony administration, which came to power in the November 2011 general
election, had been critical of Taiwan’s former ambassador Tom Chou, accusing
him of interfering in the internal affairs of the island.
But
the government maintained diplomatic relations with Taipei than with China
which it had previously enjoyed up to 2006. (CMC)
Source:
http://www.caribbean360.com/index.php/news/st_lucia_news/641139.html#ixzz2EEFm47m6
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