During a recent public town hall meeting held in Brooklyn, New York, Prime Minister Godwin Friday of St. Vincent and the Grenadines has formally reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to upholding the country’s decades-long ban on personal watercraft jet skis in all local territorial waters. The announcement came in direct response to a question from a Vincentian expatriate based in New York, who pressed for the restriction to be lifted to align SVG with jet ski-accessible destinations across the Caribbean, noting the recreational activity’s widespread popularity with both tourists and returning nationals.
In his response, Friday acknowledged the broad appeal of jet skiing as a coastal recreational activity across the Caribbean region, but explained that unresolved public safety risks and gaps in the country’s current regulatory enforcement capacity have led the government to retain the longstanding ban for the foreseeable future.
“Jet skis is an issue that has come up over and over again in certain areas,” the prime minister told attendees. “We have looked at the pros and cons of it, and for the time being, we have said that we will not change with respect to that. And so it continues to be [that] we… restrict or… ban the use of jet ski in our bays and waters and so forth.”
Drawing on personal experience from his home community of Bequia, Friday framed unregulated high-speed watercraft operation as an inherent threat to recreational water users including swimmers and casual bathers. He emphasized that the core challenge is not the activity itself, but the absence of a robust framework to enforce operating boundaries and safety standards. Adding jet skis to already busy nearshore waters, he argued, would only exacerbate existing regulatory gaps rather than resolve them.
“Unless we can find a solution to that with respect to jet skis, for the time being, that is the approach that we have adopted,” Friday said. The prime minister did not rule out future policy changes, however, noting that the government remains open to revisiting the ban if and when SVG can strengthen its regulatory capacity and implement a comprehensive safety framework to manage jet ski operations.
“Sometimes it’s necessary for us to review policies that we have had, and we are open to doing that,” he added. “But the matter came up… since we’ve been in government, and we have confirmed the decision that was taken many years ago.”
Beyond the jet ski discussion, the town hall meeting served as a platform for Friday to lay out his administration’s transformative new vision for SVG’s tourism sector, which sits at the heart of the country’s broader economic growth and debt-reduction strategy. The prime minister stressed that the days of the government relying on heavy public borrowing to fund large-scale infrastructure projects are over, and the administration is now turning to private sector investment and diaspora capital to drive modernization and expansion of the country’s tourism offerings.
“We are entering into an era where we are going to rely more on private investment,” Friday told the gathering. “We need your input. We are going to engage in public-private partnerships in a way that accelerates investment in the country and generates economic growth that brings a better standard of living, more jobs, more investment opportunities, more services… to our economy.”
As a flagship example of this new approach, Friday revealed that the government is currently in active negotiations with Global Ports Holding (GPH), a leading regional cruise port operator, for a concession agreement to operate and upgrade the aging Kingstown cruise terminal. Built more than three decades ago, the existing terminal no longer meets the needs of the modern cruise industry, which has shifted to far larger vessels and demands higher-quality visitor amenities than the current facility can provide.
Friday noted that the government lacks the fiscal room to undertake the multi-million dollar modernization project on its own, and a partnership with GPH will deliver the required upgrades immediately without adding additional burden to the country’s national debt. Under the proposed agreement, the government will retain public ownership of the terminal while capturing a share of operating revenue, creating a model that can be replicated for other key tourism infrastructure projects across SVG.
This public-private partnership framework aligns with Friday’s three-pronged national strategy: stabilizing public finances, shielding vulnerable communities from the impacts of fiscal adjustment, and driving sustainable growth through private sector-led expansion. The prime minister added that this strategy marks a return to SVG’s historic roots as an export-led economy, a tradition he said has been eroded in recent years by growing risk aversion to engaging global markets.
“Since we have had agriculture in the past, where we used to export — we were an export-led economy,” he reminded the audience. “People seem to forget that we made our living by selling things abroad. Nowadays, there seems to be this reticence to take a chance, to think, well, we can’t sell things outside of St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ shores. We have to bring back that… environment in which we build and we invest, so that we can sell abroad, and there is a larger market, and that way we earn more, improve the standing of our people.”
For Friday, tourism extends far beyond physical infrastructure like ports and hotels. It is a platform to build new domestic businesses, distinctive destination brands, and immersive visitor experiences that can be marketed to global travelers through modern digital channels, unlocking long-term inclusive growth for all Vincentians.