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Did S.L.P. Bungle Vieux Fort Deal?

Tourism Minister Says Technocrats Kept Out of ‘Pearl of Caribbean’ Discussions.

Image of Tourism Minister, Dominic Fedee
Tourism Minister, Dominic Fedee, says the previous administration stalled the ‘Pearl’ deal unnecessarily. [PHOTO: Stan Bishop]
KEY technocrats were excluded from sharing their input during the initial stages of discussions on the US$2.6 billion tourism-related project for which the current administration recently signed an agreement with Malaysian billionaire, Teo Ah Khing.

That was the sentiment expressed by Minister for Tourism, Dominic Fedee, when he made a guest appearance on the television show, “TALK”, hosted by journalist Rick Wayne, on Thursday evening.

Fedee said the Dr. Kenny Anthony-led administration made several errors related to the project, including the exclusion of crucial people with the appropriate know-how from key local agencies. However, he declined to name those agencies.

“A lot of the technical staff that should have been part of the deal were left out of the discussions and didn’t have a proper brief as to where the government wanted to go with this,” Fedee said. “(They held those discussions) in the absence of a lot of the technical advisors who should have been at the discussion table.”

Fedee said Teo visited Saint Lucia on at least four occasions to hold discussions with the previous administration but failed to ink a deal for the international standard integrated development earmarked for Beausejour, Vieux Fort.

He said that while due diligence was cited as a critical factor in any agreement being signed, consideration should have been given to prioritize the process without foregoing the essential checks and balances. He believes the SLP-led administration was tardy in its approach towards the project, cancel “Pearl of the Caribbean”.

“We have to move away from this notion that ‘due diligence’ means taking a long time. ‘Due diligence’ should mean being very meticulous in a reasonable amount of time, taking into account the importance of investment to the country,” Fedee argued.

SLP’s spokesmen, Dr. Ernest Hilaire and Moses Jn Baptiste, have raised concerns about the project that promises to employ thousands of people during and after construction. Among those concerns are the likely negative impacts the project can have on the environment, especially the Mankote Mangrove nearby.

However, Fedee indicated that as per a clause in the agreement signed between Prime Minister Allen Chastanet and Teo, Chairman of Desert Star Holdings Ltd., on July 29, considerations have been made “to ensure that the mangrove is improved upon.”

Fedee said that while the SLP has repeatedly expressed environmental concerns about the project, official records dating back to the previous administration’s tenure do not reflect those sentiments. He accused the SLP of “misleading” the citizenry.

“This is a desperate political attempt and there is misleading information that is being peddled for convenient reasons,” Fedee said.

The SLP has repeatedly gone on record as saying that it supports the project as long as the best interest of Saint Lucia is protected and secured.

Since the July 29 signing, the party has called on government officials to provide crucial information related to the project, including whether DSH already has the rights to begin promoting, marketing and selling investments through Saint Lucian citizenships before it has received DCA and CIP approval, and whether the incumbent is applying due diligence to the project.

Fedee, however, said government is following the necessary procedures to ensure that the project does go through the appropriate stages with a view to it becoming a reality. He said the country’s high unemployment level demands that a more business-like approach be taken to ensure that major investors are not frustrated by unnecessary bureaucracy.

“We have seen nothing that should keep the project back,” Fedee said. “We are satisfied, based on the advice that we’ve received from our technical people from Invest Saint Lucia. We think they have done a meticulous job (and) have researched this investor. So we felt a level of comfort in going forward.”

The project, which includes a marina, racecourse, resort and shopping mall complex, casino, free trade zone, extensive entertainment and leisure facilities and over 1500 architecturally-designed villas and apartments, will be built on 700 acres of land. While no figure has been disclosed as to what value such land will be sold for, Fedee said the project will be built on land provided by the Crown and Invest Saint Lucia.

“Some of the land will be leased because it’s part of the development,” Fedee said. “We believe that for the strategic importance of the country, we will keep some of those lands and lease it to the investor instead of selling that land. But some of the land from Invest Saint Lucia will be sold so that we can stimulate investment.”

During First Citizens Investment Services’ Market Outlook Seminar held in February, Invest Saint Lucia’s CEO, Mc Hale Andrew, listed 17 projects said to be in the investment pipeline for Saint Lucia at the time. Included among them was a mixed use development project for Beausejour, Vieux Fort that would comprise a horse racing track, hotel and marina development and casino.

The proposed investment was said to cost approximately US$1.4 billion and no word has since been given as to why the project’s cost has nearly doubled.

Fedee maintains that the previous administration “had become old-fashioned” while other regional territories have forged ahead. He said Saint Lucia stands to benefit immensely from the project and undue delay might only worsen the investor’s frustration.

“(These territories) are embracing one important point: ‘Capital goes where it is welcomed and stays where it is loved.’ I don’t think (the previous administration) grasped that, because everything was extremely bureaucratic and onerous,” Fedee said.

Stan Bishop began his career in journalism in March 2008 writing freelance for The VOICE newspaper for six weeks before being hired as a part-time journalist there when one of the company’s journalists was overseas on assignment.

Although he was initially told that the job would last only two weeks, he was able to demonstrate such high quality work that the company offered him a permanent job before that fortnight was over. Read full bio...

13 Comments

  1. Your Jackass Leader The CHASTANET CRIME FAMILY SIGNED THE FRIGGING “DEAL”.

    Now you are blaming Kenny Anthony for signing it ? What he hell am I missing here?

    Allen Chastanet is an idiot of international renown, and for years, we kept swinging the RED FLAG, that it would be disastrous to make this retarded ignoramus the leader of U.W.P., let alone St. Lucia.

    I cannot believe that Allen Chastanet is so frigging retarded that he would enter into an agreement without having his lawyers carefully examine what he was signing and then turn around and blame Kenny Anthony for not signing this Ponzi Scheme, while looking at us in the face grinning like a retarded ar-beer-beer.

  2. /

    THE CHASTANET CRIME FAMILY has exposed every 275,000 Lucians and their unborn children on this Island to the Chinese Mafia, in a Ponzi Scheme that will bankrupt this island, turning our sisters and mothers into drug addicts , and prostitutes, as this Roll and Tumble operation gets going.

    You were admonished much too often by our Resident DOCTOR AL-AMEEN and DOCTOR OF PSYCHIATRY DASSAULT MIRAGE, but warnings were of no avail to your comatose condition.

    The CHASTANET CRIME FAMILY, headed by TARZAN, JANE DUBULAY, AND BOY ALLEN, with their LITTLE BLACK BOLOMS AND LAJAHBLES have now entered into a SECRET AGREEMENT with the CHINESE MAFIA that people of this Country will be told nothing of significance about how the island of St. Lucia will be ground to dust by the CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE KNOWN AS CHASTANET CRIME FAMILY.

    THE CITIZENS OF ST. LUCIA MUST BE KEPT IN TOTAL DARKNESS ABOUT THIS CRIME OF RAPE BEING PERPETRATED AGAINST VIRGIN HELLEN NOW BEING PROSTITUTED TO CHINA MEN WITH LITTLE PENISES.

    We have information, that the Idiot Allen has been given his instructions by the Chinese Mafia that if he opens his mouth singing to any Lucian what they made him sign, these Gangsters will break both legs of his son, make his daughter a heroine junkie and kill his father with the poison of a Cock Sepan.

    Attorney Richard Frederick was able to get information from his inside source and shares it with you in this video.

    https://www.facebook.com/284538805083530/videos/524556617748413/

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  3. Why do you sign a deal knowing that there was a lack of consultation, and the key stakeholders were not involved. So, what you do is invite the key stakeholders on board, you don’t just sign the F**king thing. You guys got conned by these investors. A set of incompetent, useless bunch, had I been in this guys place I would not utter such rubbish. At least own up to your government’s incompetence.

  4. Why do the locals never invest in anything and always expect foreigners to invest in a 3rd world coutnry where things either do not happen or fail shortly after start?

  5. 0

    The self-hating Negroes like the UNCLE TOM TOM KANE, and the House Negroes like Fedee, who thinks they are created in the Image of this Evil Caucasian, hanging naked with his “lickle Fish” and pink balls dripping blood on these deranged Africans, marooned somewhere in the sixteenth Century, have all entered Monasteries somewhere in China, where these lobotomized Negroes hope to be safe from the wrath and anger of the Lucian People now awakening to the Fraudulent and deceitful Ponzi Scheme victimizing them for billions of dollars.

    It has finally dawned upon the many Lucian victims of the CHASTANET CRIME SYNDICATE that Allen Chastanet has entered into a SECRET ARRANGEMENT with the CHINESE MAFIA to steal THIRTY-ONE MILLION SQUARE FEET of the most beautiful Lucian land and property, then have the Government of St. Lucia pay the mafia billions of dollars at the end of two years when the CHINESE MAFIA will declare this ROLL & TUMBLE GWEN-DEUX OPERATION has failed to recruit the two-hundred investors at $250, 000, 000.00 two-hundred and fifty million dollars per investor, required to make the Ponzi Scheme sail.

    The CHASTANET CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE has promised the CHINESE MAFIA to keep the People of St. Lucia in TOTAL DARKNESS, and tell them NOTHING without the permission of the CHINESE MOBSTERS. This Ponzi Scheme by the CHINESE MAFIA, will make the thirty-thousand dollars stolen by Allen Chastanet from the people of Soufriere look like Pop Corn.

    TAKE A LISTEN TO THE SECRET CON-PLO by the CHASTANET CRIME SYNDICATE WITH THE CHINESE MAFIA:

    https://www.facebook.com/284538805083530/videos/524556617748413/

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  6. HERE WE GO AGAIN THIRD WORLD COUNTRY ????
    WHAT THE F*** IS THAT ?

    why do the locals never invest in anything and always expect foreigners to invest in 3rd world country
    ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
    MICHAEL CHASTANET NEVER INVEST?
    J Q CHARLES NEVER INVEST?
    ELWIN MARCELLIN NEVER INVEST ?
    COX. CO. (FAMILY ) NEVER INVEST ?
    DILLY’S SUPERMARKET NEVER INVEST ?
    DU BOULAY NEVER INVEST ?
    VALLEY BASKET NEVER INVEST ?
    BRAIN DAHER NEVER INVEST ?
    FRED LUMBER NEVER INVEST ?
    TRUE VALUE NEVER INVEST ?
    M & C NEVER INVEST ?
    TRIM HORSE RACING NEVER INVEST ?
    RICHARD FREDRICK NEVER INVEST ?

    PLEASE TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT WHAT IS BEING INVESTED IN YOUR FIRST WORLD COUNTRY !!
    THEN COME BACK AGAIN !!

    ALLEN CHASTANET HAVE TAKEN THE OATH OF SECRECY / MYSTERIES AND CONSPIRACY AGAINST ST. LUCIAN’S HE HAVE NOW BEEN INITIATED INTO THE WORLD OF THE ASIAN MAFIA . IF HE EVER REVEAL THE SECRET OF THE ORGANIZATION TO ANY ONE OR TO ANY COUNTRY HE WILL HAVE HI THROAT CUT FROM EAR 2 EAR WITH HIS TONG PULL OUT FROM IT’S SOCKET AND HUNGERING ON HIS BREAST LIKE A NECK-TIE OR HIS BOWEL DUG OUT AND HIS BODY DECAPITATE AND THROWN TO THE FOUR WINDS BY EACH MEMBER OF HIS FRATERNITY.
    JUMP HIGH JUMP LOW LUCIAN’S CAN’T REVERSE WHAT HAVE BEEN SIGH AND THE OATH THAT HAS BEEN TAKEN. THIS BROTHER HOOD IS WORLD WIDE VERY ACTIVE IN AMERICA AND CHINA. ONLY DEATH CAN PART ONE FROM THIS BLOODY HOOD.

    MY BATTLE CRY
    ” I AM LAMENTING IN SACK CLOTH AND ASH ”
    PLE TA PLE TWIS
    TA TOE TA TOE.

  7. Let the little avortay from Guyana know he can fool no one. The slp signed no agreement and so bungled nothing. If there bungling its done by uwp through orgasmic excitation in finding a new toy.

  8. SON OF MAN
    AND 2
    ALL MY BROTHERS OF A SOUND MIND ..GREETINGS AND LET BROTHERLY LOVE PREVAIL.
    IN THE NAME OF ALLAH/GOD.
    BROTHER -ALL
    WE AS A PEOPLE AND FROM A BEAUTIFUL SMALL NATION DIVERSE IN INTELLECTUAL CAPACITY
    AND WEALTH HAVE TO BEWARE OF POLITICAL HIDDEN AGENDAS OF THOSE SO-CALL LEADERS
    MOST OF THEM WITH INTERCULTURAL ,INTELLECTUAL, SCHIZOPHRENIA, BIPOLAR AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISEASE AND DISABILITIES.

    MANY OF TIMES THOSE WITH COLONIAL MENTALITY WILL DISAGREE AND DISRESPECT YOUR STRUGGLE TO FREE YOUR PEOPLE FROM THE RELIGION OF THEIR COLONIAL MASSA.
    MY BROTHERS DON’T GIVE UP BECAUSE OUR FOREFATHERS KEEP THE FIGHT AGAINST SHACKLES OF IRON AND THE INDOCTRINATION OF OF THE MIND TO GIVE US OUR FREEDOM AND OUR SANITY IF WE DON’T CHERISH THEIR SWEAT TEARS AND BLOOD AND WE ALLOW OUR SELF TO RE-ENTER THOSE DARK AND GLOOMY ABUSE OF THEIR STRUGGLE THEN WE ALLOWED OUR SELF TO BE ENTANGLE IN A WEB OF TOTAL DESTRUCTION TO OUR OWN MAKING.
    THE HYPOCRISY OF THOSE PERSONS WHO ARE AWARE OF THE DANGER OF THIS SECRET AND UNLAWERFUL DEAL ARE TWICE AS MENTALLY DERANGE AS ALLEN CHASTANET AND HIS MERRY MEN OF PATHOLOGICAL LIARS. TIME WILL TELL US MORE

    MY BATTLE CRY
    “I AM LAMENTING IN SACK CLOTH AND ASH”
    PLE TA PLE TWIS
    TA TOE TA TOE

    1. son of dog
      THE SON OF MAN ASS HAVE BEE SHUT UP A VERY LONG TIME AGO
      son of dog @ August 15
      we know you are getting your fool share of allen’s left-over from his table of LADJIDJIT AND WILACHMAN MIX WITH HIS VOMIT AND HIS W*** SANITARY TOWELS YOUR MOUTH HAVING BEEN HIS TOILET SO ENJOY.
      SON OF MAN…SON OF ADAM ” PROFESSOR PHENOMENAL” THAT WHAT YOU ARE .
      ONE DAY VERY SOON ST. LUCIAN’S WILL FELL THE RAVAGE- CRAFTY AND SUPERFICIAL NATURE OF THEIR GOD AND MASTER ALLEN CHASTANET.
      MY BATTLE CRY
      ‘I AM LAMENTING IN SACK CLOTH AND ASH”
      PLE TA PLE TWIS
      TAN TOE TAN TOE

  9. Why did you sign if you knew that the deal was incomplete. If there were so many technical issues still to be worked out, why for such a big project it only took the government two months to complete. Should you guy not do due diligence to validate that everything was looked at meticulously prior to signing. The first bow shot to try to cover their misdids if things start coming out that shows incompetency on their part. DO NOT BLAME KENNY AND CO FOR SOMETHING YOU HAD THE LAST WORD ON!!!! I hope this was not done out of desperation…..

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