The Government of Saint Lucia achieved a new and significant milestone this week, when the Cabinet of Ministers approved a National Services Policy along with the Services Sector Strategy and Action Plans for four priority Service Sectors namely, the Creative Industries; Information and Communications Technology (ICT); Professional Services; and Spa and Wellness.

The adoption of the policy represented the culmination of years of collaboration, consultation and effort from the Department of Commerce along with its major stakeholders.

With the Department of Commerce now geared to move forward with the implementation of the Policy, Minister Felix has taken the opportunity to engage one of the policy’s major stakeholders, the Saint Lucia Coalition of Services Industry (SLCSI), to discuss the current status of the services sector and the interventions of Government in this regard.

Ahead of the meeting, the Minister remarked that “the Services Sector in Saint Lucia is the main contributor to our island’s GDP and employs a large percentage of the island’s workforce, with tourism and tourism-related services being a major component of this statistic. With the Government of Saint Lucia having already invested heavily in the tourism industry, greater attention must now be paid to other emerging service sectors in which there is potential for immense growth, both on the domestic and international market.”

The broad vision behind the new services policy is to position Saint Lucia as the leading provider of world-class services in the Eastern Caribbean by harnessing the talent and creativity of Saint Lucian service providers; promoting service excellence; and becoming globally competitive in selected service industries.

The underlying goal of the policy and resulting strategy is to develop the services infrastructure of Saint Lucia, enabling our service providers to meet international standards and participate sustainably in global value chains within their respective service sub-sectors.