St Lucia joins ALBA and PetroCarib

CASTRIES, St Lucia -- This week the government of Saint Lucia participated in two important regional integration activities that will have far-reaching and long-lasting implications for the country. On Tuesday, the government, led by the ministry of sustainable development, energy, science and technology, started two days of meetings with a high-level technical team from Venezuela and PDVSA to refine and finalize a bilateral cooperation agreement that will allow Saint Lucia to purchase petroleum products from Venezuela at highly concessionary terms and establish a financing facility for essential major projects in the social and productive sectors. PetroCaribe will provide Saint Lucia with an alternative source of petroleum that will advance the  immediate and medium-term energy security agenda of the government.                                                                                                                                                           Also on Tuesday, Prime Minister Kenny Anthony, accompanied by the minister for public service, sustainable development, energy, science and technology, Senator James Fletcher, participated in the presidential summit of ALBA in Guayaquil, Ecuador, at which Saint Lucia was officially accepted into the regional integration movement. In addition to providing a regional forum for articulating the economic, social and environmental issues confronting developing states, the government said that ALBA represents a significant avenue for Saint Lucia to access very low-cost financing for critical national initiatives. Saint Lucia joins sister OECS member countries of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica and St Vincent and the Grenadines in ALBA.