Invest Saint Lucia encourages investors to participate in its annual survey

FOR the past 3 years, Invest Saint Lucia (ISL) has been initiating contact with local and foreign investors as part of efforts to capture information on their respective economic contributions to the local economy, as well as to identify challenges within the business environment that could help guide policy makers in their bid to make Saint Lucia a more ideal place to do business.

Given the feedback received thus far, ISL says it has been able to determine the impact of investments on the Saint Lucian economy and has also been able to ascertain those challenges within the business environment that can be improved upon.

According to a ISL press release yesterday, “Despite the responses from investors in the past, CEO Roderick Cherry believes that the results are not a true representation of the issues faced by business persons.”

The release said, “I think we’re barely scratching the surface as it relates to the feedback we’re getting. There are hundreds of investors on island, yet the participation has unfortunately not been as substantial as we would have liked. It may be a situation where business people are circumspect when it comes to providing information on their respective investments.”

“Let me assure you,” he explained, “the information which you provide will not be directly associated with you or your business.

“In fact, the investment figures will be compiled, analysed and reported on as clusters or by sector or subsector. Neither your name nor the name of your firm will be used in any document based on this survey.”

Cherry went on to state that this year, a new strategy has been adopted as it relates to soliciting greater participation from the business community.

He said, “In the past, we’ve invited investors on our mailing list to participate in the survey, but this is still limited to only those businesses that we have facilitated. This year, however, ISL felt it necessary to use a different approach towards encouraging investors to provide us with critical information that will feed into our strategy for improving the business climate.”