Canada Will Stop Bilateral Aid to OECS Countries

Canada will no longer provide bilateral assistance to the sub-regional Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) at the end the current aid program, so said St. Lucia´s External Affairs and International Trade Minister, Petrus Compton, who recently held talks with Canadian government officials.

The OECS groups the islands of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Montserrat, St. Kitts-Nevis, Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands.

He said that Canada had now decided that two thirds of its

bilateral aid budget would be focused on only 25 countries, as opposed to 150 currently being served under the program.

Mr Compton indicated, however, that the Canadian officials had said only the bilateral budget would be affected, so the OECS states would still have access to the multilateral budget, as well as to humanitarian aid provided in times of disasters.

One of the major program funded by Canada is the bilateral aid program of the St. Lucia based Caribbean Regional Program for Economic Competitiveness (CPEC), which has for the past five years, funded public and private sector projects in several Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries.