The Opposition Nevis Reformation Party is charging that the frequent trips overseas by Foreign Minister Premier Mark Brantley are nothing more than official junkets that do not bring any trade, investment or development to Nevis.
This came against the backdrop of Premier Brantley’s third visit to Taiwan where he met with Her Excellency Dr Tsai Ing-wen, President of the Republic of China (Taiwan). According to an NIA press release on the visit, the meeting afforded the opportunity to explore areas for cooperation in the business sector, quoting the Premier as saying that while other sectors have been doing well, he believes that private sector investment is the next step in the evolution of the two nation’s longstanding relationship. The release went on to say that the Taiwanese President welcomed the idea and immediately organized for the St. Kitts and Nevis top diplomat to meet with members of the private sector to continue to explore possibilities.
NRP Vice President Dr. Kelvin Daley says these are platitudes the people of Nevis have heard before yet there has been nothing to show for the many overseas bilateral meetings.
“We look at the Minister of Foreign Affairs; he travels up and down the place- that is what he does. Fine; you have to travel for regional and international meetings- I’m not taking that from him, that’s his job. The problem is this- one of the critical roles of a Foreign minister is to develop and forge links with other countries, bilateral arrangements where we can now develop industries and trade relations with those countries. We have none; we haven’t developed anything, we have nothing to sell, no new jobs, no new development, no new money to come into the treasury; all talk.
“Where are we in developing trade links with those countries that the government can say we have developed a bilateral arrangement with these countries or trading bloc and we can now move freely our goods and services without much encumbrances. This is the role of a foreign minister; but instead we are seeing pictures on Facebook where he’s in Estonia and Soviet Georgia talking about scholarships for Turkey. This is totally ridiculous; it is disconnected from the reality on the ground where we need hard relationships, hard currency generation and instead we are getting fluff and froth from this Minister.”
Dr. Daley say the present business model the NIA practices has failed to attract foreign direct investment as the tax regime makes doing international business out of Nevis non-viable. The NRP is advocating for supporting and developing small business enterprises such as the mom and pops shops and stores on the island.