‘Increased employment coming to the south’ says St Lucia PM

Vieux Fort will morph into a modern city full of opportunity because of the Desert Star Holdings ‘Pearl of the Caribbean’ project, the prime minister has said.

And Allen Chastanet's government will be stepping up its efforts to create employment opportunities.

Part of government’s strategy to reduce this rate is to create employment throughout Saint Lucia, including the south of the island.

Last week the prime ministers said that his administration is working towards ensuring the unemployment rate is less than 15% by 2021.

Despite a reduction in the unemployment rate from 24.1% in 2015 to 21.6% in 2016, youth unemployment still stands at 43.1%.

During the island’s 2017 budget presentation, the prime minister announced a partnership with OJO Labs International.

Together they plan to develop artificial intelligence training, as well as a call centre to market and sell the products, services, software and technology of OJO and its clients.

“By September, OJO will occupy leased, retrofitted premises within the St Lucia Freezone to house this facility,” the prime minister said.

“Employees will be recruited and trained starting this month. It is anticipated that 50 jobs in the area of artificial intelligence training will be immediately created with the plan to expand to over 200.

“This is a first for the Caribbean and we will provide our people with advanced technological skills that are not currently unavailable in the region. This will provide an opportunity for our young people to be exposed to cutting edge technology from a first-world company.”

‘DSH project on unprecedented scale’

There is more cause for optimism on the island with continuing work on Desert Star Holding’s Pearl of the Caribbean project.

Chats TK TK said: “We know that this is a bold and sweeping project, and that the scale of the project is unprecedented, but at the time, so was the Pigeon Island causeway, the Millennium Highway, the John Compton Dam, the Hess Oil refinery, and the Rodney Bay Marina.

“We cannot be afraid to embrace development because without it there is no hope for our people. The jobs they need so desperately will not fall from the sky, we must create them. This government will do so, and we will do it in a manner which marries respect for our environment with the need to develop, for the two must go hand in hand.”