Will DCash stimulate economic activity in SVG

EDITOR: The SEARCHLIGHT Newspaper of June 2, 2023 informed, that the ECCB will soon be offering its clients what it calls DCash service in E-commence transactions.

The article reported, that Mr Timothy Antoine the Governor of the ECCB said, that when DCash was launched in March 2021, the ECCB became the first currency union in the world to launch a digital currency.

Mr Antoine seems to be suggesting, that this is going to be a useful service for many people.

One wishes the regional institutions well in its new endeavours, but as a member of the agricultural community, I am still haunted by the memory of the ECCB’s indifference to our agriculture, as was exhibited in 2008/9, when they instituted their big “STIMULATION and GROWTH PLAN” for the sub- region.

They did not include agriculture, they declared that we could import cheaper food from outside of the region. What is the situation today? We are importing food that is less healthy than ours! In the process we are losing millions of dollars from our economy. Our food is more expensive.

Until there is a frank discussion on that “PLAN” to determine why it failed, the credibility of the ECCB will be low in St Vincent and the Grenadines. It is to be hoped, that the level of maturity could be reached where such issues can be examined, as we endeavour to devise systems which would enhance the development of our country.

It is evident, that the SEASON OF REPARATIONS is here in the Caribbean! And we in St Vincent and the Grenadines need now bestir ourselves. Our Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves seemed to have made that assessment distinctly, when in his Christmas message to the nation in December last, he lamented, that many Vincentians were merely drifting along, carrying the agony of their circumstances printed on their faces. He appealed for support from those persons who had the capacity. He then declared that 2023 was going to be “the YEAR OF RESPAIR”. We were going to repair the damage! Those words prompted ‘Hope’.

In the next few weeks the Christmas season will be upon us and I have not as yet heard that any plan of action had been determined to chart this noble RESPAIR project.

There seems to be “a cloud of untrustworthiness“ enveloping our land! Will ECCB’s “DCASH” protect us?

Leroy Providence