SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PLAN

A new draft Sustainable Economic Development Plan (SEDP) has been developed for St Helena. This has been published on the SHG website at:  https://www.sainthelena.gov.sh/publications/

The objectives of the SEDP are to:

• Provide a vision for the Island’s economic growth
• Help investors understand St Helena’s strengths as a place to do business
• Provide direction for decision making, to make it easier for businesses which contribute to economic development
• Help set direction for Enterprise St Helena

To develop the draft SEDP, feedback was used from the public survey which ran between July and September 2017 and targeted discussions with the Chamber of Commerce and business owners.  The SEDP brings many existing economic concerns together in one document and provides actions to help overcome challenges.

Government Economist, Nicole Shamier, said:

“I want to thank all of you who have inputted into the writing of the draft Sustainable Economic Development Plan so far. We know that to see economic prosperity on St Helena it is imperative that more money enters and is retained on the Island. The big questions which contributors to the writing of the SEDP have grappled with is ‘how can we export more?’ and ‘how can we import less?’. The SEDP summarises the responses and I hope that the Plan provides a good framework which we can use to move forward.”

Chairperson of the Economic Development Committee, Councillor Lawson Henry, added:

“I would like to thank Nicole the SHG Economist for her work on the Plan and to those who have contributed to it so far.  It is as Nicole has pointed out that for St Helena to have the prosperity we all want it is important to have more money coming in and less going out.  Our emphasis must therefore be to produce more locally and make it affordable to all especially the lower wage earners. To make this work it will require commitment from both producers and retailers and a change in the way we do business with each other, importantly more sharing of the risks involved.  I look forward to hearing your views during the consultation process.”

The Economic Development Committee will be holding public consultation meetings on the draft Sustainable Economic Development Plan as follows. All meetings will start at 7pm.

Alternatively, if you would like to respond to the consultation by email, please contact the Government Economist via: nicole.shamier@sainthelena.gov.sh by Monday,12 February 2018.

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SHG

2 January 2018