Nevis News

Basseterre, St. Kitts – Nevis
December 07 2007 (CUOPM)

St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas said Thursday that the Venezuela Petro Caribe Energy Cooperation Agreement recognises the need for urgent assistance in the fight of Caribbean societies to cope with the high price of fuel and the need to urgently transform Caribbean societies.

Speaking at a ceremony on Thursday to mark the delivery of nearly 7,000 barrels of diesel, Prime Minister Douglas said the agreement compliments other strategies to cushion the effects of such high oil prices on the lives of ordinary men and women in St. Kitts and Nevis.

“The Venezuelan Petro Caribe arrangement is a catalyst for the introduction of alternative approaches to market access, product distribution and retail, and the correction of the various pricing inequities that prevail through creative business and financial arrangements and social programmes,” he said.

Dr. Douglas said that recognizing the diversity of energy resources among Caribbean countries, the continued importance of petroleum and natural gas as fuels and the capabilities of the different countries, “it is inevitable for us to conceive the development of Petro Caribe as a multilateral framework that reflects shared social responsibility among the countries which make up the membership.”

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Charlestown, Nevis
December 6, 2007

The Premier of Nevis, Hon. Joseph Parry aired his point of view about his government’s recent land acquisition issue on Voice of Nevis (VON) popular radio program, ‘Let’s Talk”, with host Evered “Webbo” Herbert.

Premier Parry noted that under the Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM), an act was passed where land could be acquired by Cabinet without going to Parliament to debate the issue. “If you look back at the records you will see that I debated the issue stating that it was not a good idea, because the public would not know the full details of the land acquisition. Now we have had to acquire certain lands in order to develop the island and we have had to use the act as it presently is,” he said. 

 Mr. Parry went on to explain that unlike the previous CCM administration, who made a habit of acquiring land in order to sell it on to foreign developers, all of the present acquisitions were for the direct use of Nevisians, such as a Police Station, a Community Centre, road improvement and housing for Nevisians or to sort out a tangled legal situation.

He explained that the first step of the NRP government has always been to have open discussions with all the interested parties, only resorting to acquisition when negotiations became dead locked. A number of the land purchases have been concluded through negotiated agreement, “It is all in the best interest of the people of Nevis“, said Premier Parry.

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