Features

Taiwan’s Huge Role In Developing Districts

By Guy Ellis
Image: CDP funds built this public park in Bexon.

$81 Million Pumped Into CDP Since 2007.

THE Republic of China on Taiwan (ROC) is partnering with the St. Lucia government on an island-wide initiative that is creating jobs, developing communities at the grassroots level with small projects and making life for thousands of people more comfortable.

Image: CDP funds built this public park in Bexon.
CDP funds built this public park in Bexon.

The Constituency Development Programme (CDP) was initiated here in 2011 during the administration of former Prime Minister Stephenson King. It has now grown into a multi-million-dollar undertaking spread throughout the entire country, and with the added benefit of giving parliamentary representatives a say in the way their constituencies are to be developed.

The ROC resumed diplomatic relations with St. Lucia in 2007 after a 10-year break. In doing so, the ROC merely picked up from where it had left off in 1998, only this time its participation in St. Lucia’s development became more intense. It found in the CDP a worthy vehicle to channel funds to push the island’s developmental agenda.

Projects undertaken, including construction of flood mitigation, drainage, soil stabilization, pedestrian footpaths and community access roads, are done by St. Lucian companies hiring local labour, thus bringing about direct economic and employment benefits to all the 17 constituencies in St. Lucia.

But there have been more prestigious projects as well, like the public parks in Marchand and Bexon, and the upgrading of the St. Helen’s Day Care Centre in George V Park.

The CDP idea is the brainchild of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA). It was adopted in St. Lucia following a promise made to parliamentarians at a workshop on “Understanding the Budget Process”, which was facilitated by the Parliament Office, in conjunction with the Ministry of Finance, Economic Affairs and National Development.

Prime Minister King first announced the programme in his 2010/2011 Budget Address, when he hailed the CDP as “a unique medium for the development of social and economic programmes aimed at stimulating economic growth, while promoting bi-partisanship and community participation within constituencies”.

The King administration started the programme with an EC$5 million allocation, but it was not long before it found a ready partner in Taiwan, which came on board in 2012 and has been supporting the programme ever since. In fact, over the last four years ending 2016, Taiwan has contributed a staggering EC$81 million towards the CDP to finance 842 projects that employed 8,000 St. Lucians.

In many instances, projects financed under the CDP have their own special stories, like the $113,000 road in Monchy named after Cletus Jn. Baptiste, a resident, who allowed his property to be used in the construction of the entrance to the road.

In the Dennery communities of Richfond, Grande Ravine, Belmont and Aux Lyons, new concrete roads and drains have now replaced dirt tracks that existed for years, thanks to Taiwanese funding of the CDP.

Even St. Lucian children as young as three months old are reaping the benefits of the CDP. In February last year, CDP funds financed a timely upgrade of the St. Helen’s Day Care Centre which has been operating in the Girl Guides building at The Gardens (George V Park) for the last 48 years. Originally a Canadian Save the Children Fund (CANSAVE) project, it moved to the Park in 1969 and was privatized 18 years later.

Monchy gets a paved road, thanks to the CDP.

At St. Helen’s, close to 100 “tiny tots” ranging in age from three months to five years are cared for daily. The project was facing significant functional challenges when the CDP came to the rescue with a major overhaul. Now, administrator of the project, Barbara Joseph, is beaming with a new enthusiasm.

“It was an excellent job in terms of giving us a better environment to work in and making the structure better than it was originally,” Joseph said. “It increased our morale, added tremendous value to what we were doing and created an atmosphere for constructive work. It also helped to increase our numbers.”

Joseph, who has headed the Centre for the past 26 years, is also one of its products. She explains: “I have been in the Gardens all my life. I attended the day care here and then after leaving Leon Hess Comprehensive Secondary School, I came back here to teach.”

It’s a story of pure pedigree, too, since her mother, Helen Joseph, was one of the pioneers of early childhood education in St. Lucia when CANSAVE came here back in 1963.

Barbara Joseph has nothing but praise for the upgrading of St. Helen’s. She said: “I want to applaud the Taiwanese and wish them everything good. I am so grateful for what they have been able to do here for us. No one will ever know how grateful I really am because being in the Gardens all my life I have been transformed from a turkey into an eagle.”

Nearly every CDP project responds to a particular need, like the road leading to the playing field in Mon Repos, Micoud. Residents say it was so bad that they actually started looking for another route. But a $94,000 project repaired the road and made access to the field easier for the scores of young sportsmen and women who use the facility in what has been an outstanding sports community.

Junior Goodridge, a Project Consultant who has been involved in several CDP projects, said the constituency programme has produced great benefits for a lot of the residents, especially in the Anse la Raye and Canaries areas. He said: “Sometimes people get a footpath or drainage works in their communities, which go a long way in making their lives more comfortable.”

So impactful has the CDP been in St. Lucia that Taiwanese Ambassador to Saint Lucia, Douglas Shen, has hailed it as “one of the most important programmes between our two countries since the year 2007.”

The St. Lucia government, meanwhile, has signaled its intention to get even more out of the programme. While the CDP has given short-term employment to thousands of St. Lucians, the government now wants to point the programme in the direction that will produce permanent jobs.

“The reality is there is an over-emphasis on CDP and the perception that CDP can solve all the problems of the country,” Economic Development and Urban Renewal Minister, Guy Joseph, said recently, acknowledging that over the years CDP funds had focused too much on drainage projects, the construction of walls and concrete roads.

“What you are doing is improving the environment of poor people. But you have not changed the status of those people in terms of them being able to improve their livelihood,” Joseph said.

According to him, the “little jobs” people want out of the CDP last three to six months or even less. Therefore, it would be better if the funds from the programme are used to train people in skills that will earn them lifelong jobs.

“If we continue to use CDP as is, we are not going to see the returns we are looking for in terms of a general improvement in the livelihoods of persons,” Joseph said.

One area in which funds from the CDP will soon be directed is the development of village tourism, a project several government Ministers, including Prime Minister Allen Chastanet, have hinted at.

Meanwhile, the CDP continues to strengthen communities and bring benefits and relief to the masses. This past April Ambassador Shen presented Taiwan’s latest contribution to the St. Lucia government for the programme: a cheque for EC$7.9 million that will ensure that towns, villages and communities throughout St. Lucia continue to grow, thanks to the contribution of one of the island’s most generous friends. (Editorial Services Feature)

1 Comment

  1. …….would like to see their involving in establishing a trade school on the island: training for Plumbers, electricians,welders,construction management,etc…..you see, these skills are in demand all over the world….If one cannot find work in St.Lucia,… then move to where the jobs are…..It is time to give these idle young men a future!!

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