Published 6 January 2020
Buckie Got It. St. Kitts and Nevis News Source
Link to Prime Minister Harris’ New Year’s Day Message:
https://gallery.mailchimp.com/bb7c8b2d02cf287e7132078a2/files/94411a96-e470-4d0e-8504-18622035a076/Prime_Minister_Harris_NEW_YEARS_SPEECH_2020.01.pdf
Web Link to Watch ZIZ TV (Channel 5):https://zizonline.com/tv/channel-5/
NEW YEAR’S ADDRESS BY
DR. THE HONOURABLE TIMOTHY HARRIS
PRIME MINISTER OF ST. KITTS & NEVIS
JANUARY 1, 2020 My Fellow Citizens and Residents,
The start of a new year always brings with it hope and reflection.
It is a time when we assess the past, but look forward to a better future.
We often reflect on our accomplishments, and we commit ourselves to strive and be even better.
As your Prime Minister, my resolve to keep building a stronger and safer future for St. Kitts and Nevis is strengthened every year.
This is especially so in this seminal year of 2020 when the future of the country will be decided.
My hope is that 2020 can be a defining year for our great Federation.
We have an exciting future within our grasp.
Having paid off Labour’s crippling IMF debt, and through focused economic management, our economy today is stronger than ever before.
Our debt-to-GDP ratio is around 55 percent – the best standing among the independent states of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU). And we achieved this milestone more than 12 years ahead of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union’s target date of 2030.
This means we have more money – more money to invest in making our streets safer, more money to build bigger and better houses and to create new jobs, more money to invest in our health and education systems and to provide more opportunities for our young people than they have had ever before.
Under Team Unity, we have been adjudged the best in the OECS by independent and prestigious authorities on various indices, including fiscal balances, information and communication technology development, per capita income, the rule of law, our appeal as a cruise destination, and the strength and attractiveness of our passport. We are the best example of a well-managed small island state!
We can also boast that the annual rate at which businesses are being created in St. Kitts and Nevis is at an all-time high. More people are working, and incomes are higher now than at any other time in our history.
Low-income households in our society have been made more secure, thanks to the Team Unity Government’s Poverty Alleviation Programme, our Roof Repair Programme, our HELP Home Improvement Programme, and other initiatives.
It is the Team Unity Administration that resolved the payment of more than 2,000 former sugar workers by securing benefits that were denied them under the former administration.
Our commitment to helping people was evident when we passed the Administration of Small Estates (Amendment) Bill in 2016. This allows people, such as representatives of deceased sugar workers, to quickly and easily access an inheritance of a small estate. Rather than going through an expensive and cumbersome legal process, the new law enables people to complete a one-page form at the cost of ten dollars to become the legal representative of a deceased person’s estate valued up to EC$25,000.00.
Your Team Unity Government has reduced red tape, making it easier for our citizens and residents to conduct their business even from the comfort of their home or office. We are the first country in the OECS to introduce and implement an e-services platform for the public to register and license new vehicles and renew drivers’ and vehicle licenses.
Our road infrastructure has been significantly improved, resulting in travel being made more comfortable and safer for our road users. We paid particular attention to our children, our elderly and differently abled and enhanced their security and safety by constructing sidewalks for them.
By continuing to work together, this can be the year that our gains are cemented as we continue to build a stronger and safer future set on a foundation of good governance and accountability.
We can make 2020 the year future generations look back on and say that this is when St. Kitts and Nevis really stepped up.
There is so much we have to look forward to – new hotels, new investments in housing, new resources for health and education, a real focus on agriculture, and unprecedented investment in information technology – more jobs, more opportunities for our young people, more financial support for small businesses, special support for young people to pursue university education and technical and vocational training.
The operational second cruise pier opens yet another gateway of opportunity for our people to strive and build a better life.
Imagine the potential we can unlock in our people, especially our young people, if these gains are locked in.
Imagine the future we can give our young people if we keep our economy strong.
Our streets can be even safer, our housing can be bigger and better. We can have more jobs and new jobs, and more opportunities for young people.
So as a Federation, let us be bold in our expectations for 2020.
I encourage all citizens and residents to also be bold in our own dreams and aspirations for the coming year.
There is nothing that cannot be achieved when our dreams are big and our drive to make them a reality is even bigger.
As Jesus reminds us in the Gospel of Matthew “with God all things are possible.”
So let us draw on those words, let us draw on our faith and make our hopes and aspirations possible.
Let this be the year we commit ourselves to building that stronger and safer future.
2020 should not be the year we go back to the past. We must keep moving forward on the progressive journey of good governance and prosperity for all.
We cannot turn back now. Too much has been achieved in the last 5 years to look backward to that which we rejected 5 years ago.
It is not the time to go back to unfunded promises and high IMF debt again. It is not right that we return our country to the brutal period of high poverty, high electricity and water bills, haircuts, denial of increments for public servants, revocation of our visa-free access to Canada and the damaging of our country’s reputation abroad. We cannot allow the government auxiliary workers to lose their honorarium again. They can trust Team Unity, and Team Unity alone, to secure their pensions!
There is too much at stake to turn back and lose it all now.
Let us instead make 2020 the year St. Kitts and Nevis embraced a stronger and safer future and set our nation permanently heading in the right direction.
I wish you and your loved ones much health, much wealth and much happiness for the coming year.
May God’s blessings be upon you in 2020 and may they be on our beloved Federation of St. Kitts & Nevis. I thank you and wish you all a Happy New Year!
