标签： Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

In a striking disclosure that lifts the curtain on opaque political appointment practices in St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ tourism sector, new Tourism Minister Kishore Shallow has confirmed that the previous chief executive of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Tourism Authority (SVGTA), Annette Mark, was handpicked for the role two years ago, overriding the outcome of a formal recruitment process that named Shafia London as the top candidate.

Shallow made the revelation during a press briefing in Villa on Monday, where he formally announced London’s appointment as the new SVGTA CEO, effective July 1. London will serve an initial three-year term in the role, and Shallow framed her appointment as a deliberate step to rebuild public trust and reinstate transparency and merit-based hiring for senior public sector positions.

Recounting the irregularities of the 2023 recruitment process, Shallow explained that the previous Unity Labour Party (ULP) government launched what was billed as a robust, comprehensive search for the SVGTA CEO role, led by an independent external recruitment panel that included experts from Trinidad. After evaluating all applicants, the panel unanimously ranked London as the leading candidate for the position. However, just days before a formal employment agreement was set to be finalized, the entire process was circumvented, and Mark was personally appointed to the role instead.

Shallow told reporters, “Just before an agreement was reached, the process was, should I say, circumvented — was circumvented — and someone else was hand-picked. That’s the reality. I say it as is. I understand that the agency then, who I had a very lengthy discussion with, … did not favour the then selectee.” The minister did not name the specific officials who intervened to derail the process, nor did he elaborate on the reasoning behind the last-minute change. Political observers have pointed out that London was passed over at a time when her husband, Grenville Williams, served as Attorney General in the ULP administration, and later ran as a ULP candidate in the November 2025 general election.

Mark, who previously served as Executive Director of Invest SVG — St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ foreign direct investment attraction agency — was appointed SVGTA CEO on August 12, 2024, when the ULP was still in power and Carlos James held the tourism minister portfolio. Her appointment was part of a high-profile leadership swap between two major state agencies: she replaced Glen Beache, a 10-year veteran SVGTA CEO and former ULP tourism minister, who took over Mark’s role at Invest SVG amid reported tensions between Beache and James.

Following the November 2025 general election, which saw Shallow’s New Democratic Party (NDP) take power and Shallow personally defeat James in the North Leeward parliamentary constituency, Mark submitted her resignation from the SVGTA CEO post. Sources familiar with the situation confirm that Mark later attempted to withdraw her resignation, stating she was willing to work with the new minister, but the administration allowed her resignation to take effect without responding to her request to reverse it.

When the SVGTA CEO position became vacant in December, Shallow said he moved quickly to revisit the results of the 2023 recruitment, reaching out to London to confirm if she was still interested in the role. “I engaged Ms London, ascertaining her availability and willingness, interest still in becoming the CEO. I will just say she responded favourably,” Shallow said, adding that London’s original ranking as the top candidate in the aborted process was a major factor in her selection. Even so, Shallow emphasized that London’s appointment went through an additional full round of vetting, consultations, and approvals to eliminate any hint of political favoritism, including reviews by the Attorney General Louise Mitchell, the SVGTA board chair Shelly Ann Fraser, and final approval from Prime Minister Dr. Godwin Friday, who gave the appointment his full backing.

London brings an exceptional range of academic and professional credentials to the role. A 2003 national scholar, she is currently completing a doctorate in business administration, and holds a first-class honours bachelor’s degree from the University of the West Indies St. Augustine, a Master of Science in biochemical engineering from University College London, and a Master of Business Administration with distinction from UWI Cave Hill.

Her career spans decades of leadership across private and public sector organizations in the Caribbean. She began her career as Executive Director of the SVG Chamber of Industry and Commerce, building expertise in local economic development, before moving into the private sector as marketing manager at St. Vincent Brewery Ltd. She rose through the ranks of regional beverage giant Banks Holdings Limited Group in Barbados, holding successive roles as group marketing manager, group commercial manager, and country head. As country head for AB InBev, the world’s largest brewer, she oversaw multi-market operations across Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Dominica, delivering consistent revenue growth and market expansion, a performance that earned her the title of Top ABI Business Leader in the Caribbean and Latin America in 2022. Most recently, she served as general manager with the SLU Group of Companies, and held leadership roles as first vice president of the Barbados Manufacturing Association and SVG’s technical representative to the Caribbean Private Sector Organization.

Shallow praised London as a highly capable, sharp-minded Vincentian business and civic leader, noting that her deep expertise in administration, marketing, and regional business strategy will be an invaluable asset as SVG works to grow its tourism sector in an increasingly competitive global market. “I know some are going to want to know how we were able to land such a high-value professional, right? And that’s why I keep saying we are fortunate,” Shallow said, adding that London’s appointment corrects a longstanding injustice and delivers the outcome that a fair, merit-based process produced nearly two years ago.

Against the backdrop of escalating global geopolitical instability, outgoing chair of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Authority and Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines Godwin Friday has issued a urgent call to regional leaders: treat deepened integration as a non-negotiable survival tool in an increasingly hostile international landscape. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 78th OECS Authority Meeting held in St. John’s, Antigua on Sunday, Friday framed his seven-month tenure leading the regional bloc around a core principle that advancing regional collective goals is fundamentally linked to delivering for domestic constituents.

“As a small island developing nation, the demands my people raise at home cannot be achieved by St. Vincent and the Grenadines acting alone. Only through coordinated collaboration with our neighboring states can these goals be realized,” Friday told attendees. “By serving the OECS effectively, I am directly advancing the interests of the people I represent at home.” During the meeting, Friday formally handed over the bloc’s rotating chairmanship to Prime Minister Gaston Browne of Antigua and Barbuda, passing along a robust policy agenda that includes ongoing negotiations over air transport restructuring, energy security frameworks, development finance expansion, and a coordinated regional response to security and migration demands from major global powers.

Friday assumed the OECS chairmanship on the exact same day he took office as St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ Prime Minister seven months prior, a coincidence he described as “two inheritances on a single day” in alignment with remarks from OECS Director General Didicus Jules. Contrary to expectations that dual leadership roles would create competing priorities, Friday explained that the two positions have proven mutually reinforcing: core domestic priorities including accessible energy, reliable air connectivity, and climate change resilience can only be effectively addressed through collective regional action.

Reflecting on the unique challenges small island states face amid today’s global shifts, Friday emphasized that his tenure coincided with a period of “profound geopolitical uncertainty” that is reshaping the region’s security dynamics, energy pricing, migration patterns, and diplomatic positioning. “What register as minor tremors for large, economically powerful nations hit small island developing states as catastrophic earthquakes,” he warned. “We bear the worst of these consequences, and we feel them for far longer than larger powers.”

One of the most sensitive policy issues addressed during Friday’s chairmanship was a formal request from the United States asking OECS member states to accept third-country nationals deported from US territory. Friday characterized the request as a “delicate and serious matter” that carries far-reaching implications for regional national security, already strained public budgets, and sovereign autonomy. Instead of pursuing individual negotiations that would put small member states at a disadvantage, OECS leaders intentionally opted for a unified collective approach, agreeing to launch joint negotiations and establish a shared technical working group to manage the issue. Friday framed this coordinated response as clear proof that national sovereignty and regional solidarity do not have to conflict – instead, they can strengthen one another.

To match the rapid pace of unfolding global events, the OECS Authority adjusted its traditional working rhythm during Friday’s tenure, moving beyond the two annual meetings required by the bloc’s founding treaty. Since the start of 2024, the authority has convened a regular session in Saint Lucia in January, a special emergency session in March, and held a continuous series of virtual coordination meetings. “We operate with the understanding that a small region cannot afford to move slowly when the rest of the world is accelerating,” Friday said. “We have committed to acting quickly, coordinating closely, and keeping our populations informed, assuring them that every decision we make centers their best interests.”

A central strategic priority during Friday’s term was leveraging the bloc’s collective sovereignty and negotiating power to unlock larger development gains than any single OECS member could secure independently. A key example of this work is ongoing engagement with a European Union proposal for a regional energy and digital connectivity initiative, which would create a unified Eastern Caribbean energy grid and lay submarine telecommunication cables to connect the region’s abundant geothermal, solar, and wind energy resources. Friday noted that the initiative could dramatically cut the region’s cripplingly high fuel import bills and, over the long term, open opportunities for the bloc to export excess clean energy to neighboring markets – while also stressing the need for careful fiscal management to avoid unsustainable debt. The bloc also made progress developing “integrated finance-ready portfolios” and innovative financing instruments that classify natural capital and climate resilience investments as viable economic assets, expanding access to concessionary development funding from global institutions.

On the long-running crisis of regional air connectivity that followed the collapse of regional carrier LIAT, Friday reported that the OECS Authority has moved past discussion to formal planning for a new jointly owned regional airline, though he acknowledged that critical final decisions remain to be finalized. Friday tied reliable, affordable air travel directly to the success of political and economic integration, reinforcing his argument for redoubled collective regional effort.

Friday’s tenure also included work to modernize and deepen the OECS’s long-standing partnership with Canada, with a focus on climate resilience financing, sustainable energy development, food security, and cross-border cooperation to counter transnational organized crime. He added that steady progress has been made on expanding regional labour mobility arrangements and strengthening regulation of the bloc’s popular citizenship by investment (CBI) programs, stressing that an independent regional regulatory body for CBI is critical to upholding program standards, echoing concerns shared across the Caribbean and in partner government capitals. “While we still face significant challenges, progress is undeniable – but there is still much more work to do,” he noted.

Friday openly acknowledged that the OECS Economic Union has substantial unfinished business, pointing out that while the region has guaranteed free movement of people for more than 15 years, regulatory frameworks for the free movement of goods and the full implementation of contingent citizens’ rights remain incomplete. High transportation costs and inconsistent service, he added, have created measurable damage to both political and economic integration efforts across the bloc.

Even with these acknowledged gaps, Friday reaffirmed the enduring relevance and value of the OECS regional integration project. “While the enthusiasm of the early years may have faded a little, we must never question the enduring relevance and appeal of this organization. External actors recognize its value, and many neighboring jurisdictions are seeking membership or deeper ties with the bloc,” he said. “It is not only necessary, but deeply desirable that we redouble our efforts to make this project succeed. We do this because of the tangible benefits it delivers to our people today, and the even greater benefits it will bring in the years ahead.”

A proposed sand and aggregate harvesting project along St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ Roseau River has emerged as a flashpoint of conflict, pitting government officials against North Leeward residents still grappling with the fallout of the divisive 2022 Richmond quarry project. During a recent public forum hosted in Golden Grove as part of North Leeward MP Kishore Shallow’s “North Leeward Matters” community outreach series, senior government and technical leaders went to great lengths to emphasize that the Roseau initiative differs sharply from the foreign-owned Richmond operation that divided local communities years ago.

Shallow, a representative of the New Democratic Party government that took office in November 2025, framed the Roseau project as a deliberate corrective to the mistakes of the previous Unity Labour Party administration’s Richmond quarry deal. That 2022 agreement leased 59 acres of prime state-owned agricultural land to St. Lucian private businessman Rayneau Gajadhar for a 30-year full-scale stone quarry operation, a move local residents decried as an unlawful “land grab” and catastrophic environmental harm. Shallow told attendees the Richmond project has already blocked critical national development, revealing that the World Bank rejected funding for a planned recreational site in the area specifically due to unregulated pollution from the quarry. He added that the new government plans to review the existing Richmond quarry contract and order a full independent environmental assessment to address longstanding community grievances.

By contrast, Shallow and other officials characterize Roseau as a low-impact, state-controlled sand harvesting operation that leverages naturally deposited volcanic river aggregate rather than large-scale excavation. Health, Wellness, Environmental Health, and Energy Minister Daniel Cummings, a trained water engineer, outlined core technical differences between the two projects: the Roseau operation will not require blasting, will not remove topsoil or overburden, and will produce far less dust and water pollution than Richmond. Unlike the Windward Coast’s Rabacca site, where rough seas make aggregate export dangerous and inefficient, Cummings noted that Roseau’s calm Leeward coast waters allow for safe barge loading, creating a steady state revenue stream that can be reinvested in domestic public infrastructure.

Transport, Infrastructure, and Physical Planning Minister Nigel “Nature” Stephenson acknowledged that the Richmond project has left deep “pain” and “environmental scars” that have eroded community trust in new resource development projects in North Leeward. He stressed that unlike Richmond, which cleared large swathes of forest and agricultural land for full-scale quarrying, Roseau will only collect loose aggregate already deposited by natural river and volcanic activity, causing minimal disruption to local ecosystems. Critically, Stephenson added that all revenue from the Roseau project will go to the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines for public benefit, in contrast to Richmond, where most profits left the country for foreign investors. “North Leeward will benefit like you have not seen over the past five or even 20 years,” he told attendees.

Kem Bartholomew, CEO of the state-owned Barbados Regional Aggregates and Stone Authority (BRAGSA) which will lead the Roseau operation, reinforced that state control is the key distinction from Richmond’s private foreign ownership. He noted that BRAGSA has already completed a required environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) for Roseau, a step activists say the Richmond project skipped when it moved ahead ahead of regulatory approval. Bartholomew added that the 3-kilometer Roseau project site holds an estimated 4.2 million cubic meters of aggregate with a gross value in the tens of millions of dollars, arguing that allowing the material to simply wash out to sea would be a wasted national opportunity.

Reynald Murray, the environmental consultant who prepared Roseau’s ESIA, backed up officials’ technical claims, confirming that the project will not involve topsoil removal, blasting, or sediment-causing washing that would pollute rivers and nearshore waters. Even so, Murray cautioned that the project carries a concrete, underdiscussed risk to local fisheries that must be managed proactively. He proposed that Roseau be run as a multi-use bay with shared governance between BRAGSA, local fishers, and tourism operators, rather than the closed single-use industrial site that Richmond became.

Despite officials’ repeated assurances, local community leaders, indigenous rights advocates, and residents say the Roseau project already mirrors the Richmond project’s most problematic patterns. Adonis Charles, chair of the North Leeward Preservation Front, said the project mirrors Richmond’s history of rushed, limited consultation with affected communities before operations begin. Charles noted that the Richmond lease cost the developer just EC$12,000 in annual rent and saw nearly every local environmental and land use law broken, warning the new government against repeating that pattern. “Don’t get us wrong, we are all for development, but development must be balanced,” Charles said, adding that he hopes the Golden Grove meeting is not the final opportunity for community input.

Activist Adrian “Tari” Codougan argued that rebranding large-scale extraction as “sand harvesting” does not fix the core problem of exclusion: the project was already underway before officials began engaging local communities whose livelihoods would be affected. Codougan proposed a national legal requirement that 25% of net profits from all community-based resource extraction be returned directly to the host community, noting that Richmond residents have never seen fair, proportional benefits from the quarry. Local fisherfolk added that the Roseau River mouth extraction poses direct risks to fishing livelihoods, already strained by the 2021 volcanic eruption and ongoing pollution from Richmond.

In closing, Shallow pushed back on community concerns, framing the Roseau project as a once-in-a-generation “golden opportunity” for both North Leeward and the entire country. He acknowledged that ongoing consultation and tangible community benefits are required to move the project forward, maintaining that the new government has learned critical lessons from the Richmond quarry controversy.