Partnership necessary to grow the economy – PM

Prime Minister Dr. Godwin Friday, said he would like to make it “very clear” that the government cannot “basically” be the driving force in the economy as it is now.

“The strategy, to begin with, was flawed. But in any event where we have arrived now, is we are at a point where even if you wanted to, there are certain things that government can’t do now because of the debt situation in the country,” the Prime Minister said on NBC radio on February 19, 2026.

He said currently in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), the fiscal space is “severely constrained” but philosophically and historically, the New Democratic Party (NDP) government has always said the key driver of economic growth and development is the private sector.

“…people who are using their resources, their intellect, all their dreams and ambition to create something and…in doing so, they have a successful business, they create jobs, they pay taxes, and that’s how the economy grows,” PM Friday said.

“So, that is where we are focused. Our plan is to really engage in that partnership with the private sector- and this is domestic, of course- and Foreign Direct Investment so that we can accelerate investment in productive sectors to generate economic growth in the country.”

He noted, however, that because the economy is ailing, the government has to stabilize “the patient first”, and then move towards generating activities and plans to create business opportunities, jobs, “and hopefully, to exceed or to surpass the expectations of the international agencies as to what our growth figures would be this year and next year”.

The prime minister stressed that the government plans to be aggressive in generating investment, because it is the only way that SVG is going to create the kind of economic impact that translates to not only jobs, but better paying jobs.

Dr. Friday also noted that while there is high unemployment, “19, 20 percent”, sometimes there are jobs, but people don’t have the skills to make us of the opportunities.

“…we don’t want to accept that as being something that is, you know, inherited and therefore cannot change. So, we have to have a longer-term strategy to also change the educational system and structure so that we can provide skills to our young people, education and skills, so that they can participate in this economy, not some fictional economy somewhere else,” the Prime Minister pointed out.

He said they are hoping to train people so they can have the skills that are required to get good jobs and good pay, while meeting the needs of the economy, and create economic growth.

“…our challenge also is to bring the debt down, because we have a debt-to-GDP ratio of over 110 percent. We have debt servicing that takes almost 40 cents of every dollar. We have, you know, annual payments this year, I think, is $250, $358 million that we have to pay in debt servicing. We have unemployment rate of 19, 20 percent.

“All of these things, we have people say, okay, well, you know, the situation is going to be difficult. We did, but to be honest, we didn’t expect it to be as tight as it is. But I am not one to be wringing my hands about it and saying, you know, look at how bad things are and so forth. We have done an assessment of the situation. We are continuing to do so, and we will put measures in place to stabilize the situation, generate growth going forward, and… build a brighter and more prosperous future for people in this country.”