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A sharp political clash has erupted in St. Vincent and the Grenadines over plans for a new national development bank, with Prime Minister Godwin Friday launching a blistering rebuke of Opposition Leader Ralph Gonsalves, framing the former prime minister’s criticism as evidence of the outdated governance that led to his Unity Labour Party (ULP)’s landslide defeat in November 2024’s general election.

The debate unfolded in Parliament on Tuesday, April 21, 2025, during discussion of a motion tabled by government senator Chelsea Alexander, advancing the New Democratic Party (NDP)’s campaign pledge to reestablish a national development bank. The incoming NDP government revived the proposal after the ULP shut down the country’s original development institution shortly after taking power in 2001.

Under the NDP’s plan, Alexander explained, the new national development bank will expand affordable access to development capital for small and medium-sized enterprises, small-scale producers, fisher folk, and other underserved vulnerable sectors that have long struggled to secure funding from existing fragmented financing frameworks.

Gonsalves, whose ULP held power for 25 years before the NDP’s decisive 14-1 election victory, pushed back forcefully against the proposal. He argued that the country already maintains a network of specialized, fit-for-purpose public institutions and programs that already deliver the core services the new bank is intended to provide. These include the 1960s-founded development corporation that was later restructured into the development bank his administration closed, the Bank of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the Student Loan Company, the Farmer Support Company, and targeted initiatives including the PRYME program and zero-down-payment mortgages for public servants, all introduced under his leadership.

Beyond questioning the need for a new standalone bank, Gonsalves raised serious concerns about the institution’s long-term viability. He challenged the NDP to identify a source of cheap, sustainable funding to support the bank’s preferential lending mission, warning that high borrowing costs, steep administrative overhead, and risks of rising non-performing loans could leave the project insolvent. “You may well end up with your national development bank where the funding is just not available at rates of interest and on terms to make it viable,” he told the chamber.

Friday rejected every element of Gonsalves’ argument, dismissing the opposition leader’s stance as proof of a “stunning lack of imagination” and a stubborn attachment to outdated governance models. The prime minister tied the opposition’s criticism directly to the ULP’s historic election defeat, arguing that the result was not just a routine electoral loss, but a full repudiation of the ULP’s backwards-looking approach to governing.

“You can’t govern based on simply everything that you saw in the past. You have to plan for the future,” Friday said. “And that is what we bring to the table… a fresh approach, a new way of looking at things, more creativity, more diligence, hard work and putting the people of this country first.”

The prime minister also pushed back against Gonsalves’ claim that consolidating multiple functions into one new bank would be inefficient, pointing to major flaws in the existing fragmented system that the NDP is seeking to fix. He noted that 75% of loans issued by the ULP-established Farmer Support Company currently go unrepaid, arguing that the new structure will deliver far better outcomes for public finances and beneficiaries alike. Contrary to claims that the bank would add unnecessary bureaucracy, Friday stressed that the proposal is a deliberate effort to rationalize the current patchwork of support programs, creating a single, more coherent and accountable institution to deliver development financing, rather than adding an extra layer of government.

Friday also framed the opposition’s opposition as a rejection of support for ordinary Vincentians, telling constituents: “Let the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines register this: the opposition opposes the national development bank, an institution that is there to give small business people, ordinary people, fisher folk, access to capital, to guidance so that they could build themselves up. They are against that.”

When the allocated time for private members’ motions expired at 5 p.m. Tuesday, the debate on the motion was adjourned to a future sitting of Parliament.

In a sweeping overhaul of accountability measures for a national post-disaster housing repair and reconstruction initiative, the new government has ordered all program payments to be routed exclusively through the national Treasury, eliminating direct disbursements by the Ministry of Housing. The policy shift comes in the wake of shocking discoveries of widespread mismanagement and corruption that left contractors fully paid for unbuilt homes and construction materials distributed with no transparent oversight.

Housing Minister Andrew John outlined the reforms in a parliamentary address Tuesday, responding to questions from opposition Senator Carlos James about the 2026 housing recovery program for properties damaged or destroyed by two successive major natural disasters: the April 2021 eruption of the La Soufriere volcano and Hurricane Beryl, which made landfall on July 1, 2024.

John explained that the new administration, which took office after winning November’s general election, inherited a deeply troubled program from the Unity Labour Party, which held power for 25 consecutive years before being voted out. The scope of the financial and operational mismanagement is so severe, he told lawmakers, that housing ministry officials are now completely barred from processing direct payments to contractors or suppliers.

“Everything now must go through the Treasury system so that we have proper accountability. No longer will we have cases where 10 or 15 homes are marked as built in a constituency, but no one can find them,” John told parliament.

The minister confirmed that unfulfilled legacy contracts from the previous administration represent one of the largest barriers to delivering the 2026 housing program. “We have discovered that what consumes a large portion of the budget allocated for 2026 is contracts issued by the prior government where contractors received full payment but never built the scheduled homes,” he said.

The ongoing mismanagement has been formally referred for investigation to Minister of National Security St. Clair Leacock, who also serves as Member of Parliament for Central Kingstown. John has already briefed Prime Minister Godwin Friday on irregularities found in Friday’s Northern Grenadines constituency, and is preparing a similar briefing for Leacock on issues in Central Kingstown. “These are serious issues, and they will impact the outcome of our performance,” John acknowledged.

A second major unresolved challenge is a massive backlog of unpaid debts owed to both local and international building material suppliers and service providers, carried over from the previous administration. John framed the shift to centralized Treasury payments as a core step in a broader effort to rebuild financial discipline, transparency, and resilience to the troubled housing recovery effort.

“This government is a government with a vision, is a government of action, and so we will overcome these problems,” John said. Going forward, stricter contractual enforcement will be paired with the new payment system to hold contractors accountable. The minister confirmed he has referred multiple problematic legacy contracts to the Attorney General to enforce contractual obligations, noting the sheer scale of the prior mismanagement is deeply troubling. “I don’t know how people could get full payment under a contract and walk away without delivering the work. It’s really, really troubling,” he said.

Despite the challenges, John confirmed that critical roof repair and rehabilitation work is continuing, with a renewed focus on “rebuilding better” ahead of the Atlantic hurricane season, which officially begins June 1. For the remainder of this year, the majority of housing activity will focus on retrofitting and rehabilitating damaged properties to improve disaster resilience.

The government is also hiring and training new assessors in every parliamentary constituency to ensure allocations of construction materials match actual on-the-ground needs, with mandatory follow-up inspections to confirm materials are used appropriately for disaster-resilient repairs. “We are encouraging all homeowners not just to rebuild, but to rebuild better, and prepare for the possibility of another major disaster,” John said.

With the new centralized payment system and enhanced oversight now in place, John reaffirmed that the housing recovery program is back on track for 2026. “I’m pleased to announce that we are on track once again to rebuild people’s homes,” he said. “We are on track — and not only are we on track now, but we are on track in a more responsible manner.”

When the New Democratic Party (NDP) won general elections in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) last November, it signaled a new direction for the Caribbean nation’s foreign engagement. That policy shift was laid out clearly to lawmakers this week by Foreign Minister Dwight Fitzgerald Bramble, who outlined the government’s pivot to a results-driven “performance-based diplomacy” model that prioritizes tangible domestic development gains over traditional ceremonial diplomacy — while explicitly confirming that the 45-year diplomatic relationship with Taiwan will remain unchanged.

Speaking in Parliament on April 21 in response to a question from opposition senator and former foreign minister Keisal Peters, Bramble opened with a straightforward confirmation of SVG’s commitment to Taipei. “We appreciate and value the relationship that we have built over the last 45 years with the government and people of Taiwan,” he said, adding that the administration is preparing to take part in enthusiastic celebrations of the sapphire anniversary of diplomatic ties, scheduled for August 15.

Bramble, a career former diplomat whose portfolio also covers foreign trade, foreign investment and diaspora affairs, explained that the NDP’s new diplomatic framework marks a deliberate break from the previous model, which centered primarily on diplomatic presence and protocol. Under the revised approach, overseas missions and consulates will no longer be assessed by the flags they fly or ceremonial events they attend, but by the tangible economic and social value they generate for SVG’s 110,000 residents.

“Foreign policy is not ceremonial, and I’m sure we all know this,” Bramble told parliamentarians. “It is economic policy, social policy and national security policy projected beyond our borders.” For a small island developing state like SVG, which lacks global military or geopolitical influence, the priority of foreign engagement must be advancing the welfare of the national population, he added. “We have to make sure that our people cannot only eat and survive, but they can thrive and develop… with a decent standard of living. That is exactly what our overseas missions will be doing under the guidance of this new government.”

Under the new model, SVG’s overseas diplomatic posts — particularly those in North America and the United Kingdom, which host large segments of the SVG diaspora — will be repositioned to act as active engines of economic development. Key priorities for diplomatic engagement include facilitating trade connections for local exporters, attracting high-quality foreign investment in targeted high-growth sectors including renewable energy, sustainable tourism, the blue economy and agro-processing, and expanding market access for Vincentian goods and services, with a particular focus on diaspora niche markets for creative industries, ICT services and skilled professional services.

Multilateral diplomatic participation will also be tied to clear, actionable national priorities, Bramble said, with core advocacy focused on climate financing, global recognition of small island developing states’ economic vulnerability, and expanded access to concessional lending.

The administration is also reframing its engagement with the global SVG diaspora, treating the community as a strategic economic partner rather than merely a source of remittances. Bramble noted that the government will work to mobilize diaspora members as investors, entrepreneurs, mentors and contributors of professional skills and expertise to support domestic development.

Turning again to the question of SVG’s relationship with Taiwan, Bramble noted that a large community of Vincentian students and diaspora members already reside in Taiwan. The government will work to streamline support for Vincentian students to complete their education, he said, while leveraging the community’s connections to turn any potential brain drain into a “brain gain” that advances national development. As with all of SVG’s international partnerships, the NDP administration will work to deepen ties with Taiwan and translate the relationship into measurable, tangible benefits for SVG citizens, he added.

The confirmation of continued relations with Taiwan closes a chapter of uncertainty that stretches back to 2016, when the NDP, then led by now-retired leader Arnhim Eustace, announced that it would cut diplomatic ties with Taipei if elected. Since winning November’s election in a landslide, the party has fully reversed that earlier position: Prime Minister Godwin Friday met with Taiwan’s ambassador to Kingstown as one of his first diplomatic engagements after taking office, and the administration appointed Taiwan-trained Mandarin-speaking journalist Kenton X. Chance, who holds a master’s degree in international affairs, as SVG’s resident ambassador to Taipei in March. Later that month, Deputy Prime Minister St. Clair Leacock led a four-member official delegation to Taipei, where he publicly reaffirmed the new government’s commitment to maintaining the long-standing bilateral relationship.