BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, OCTOBER 25TH, 2016 (PRESS SEC) – Prime Minister Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris on Saturday, October 22nd highlighted the noteworthy achievements of his change-making Team Unity Government before a sizable audience of St. Kitts-Nevis Nationals who live in the British Virgin Islands (B.V.I.).
The informative and at times electric town hall meeting, which was held at the Althea Scatliffe Primary School in Road Town, Tortola, left the Kittitians and Nevisians in attendance satisfied and more knowledgeable about the happenings in their homeland, such as the fact that the Nevis Island Administration is now assured of regular budgetary support from the Federal Government for the very first time.
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Ms. Yolande de Castro, President of the Nevis Alliance Progressive Society (NAPS) of the B.V.I., said after the meeting that, “As a Nevisian, I am proud to know that there is so much taking place in the Federation, where the Team Unity Government is making such a great impact on the island of Nevis, and we Nevisians can say that we are proud to see so much progress that is taking place because of Team Unity.”
Ms. de Castro chaired Saturday night’s town hall proceedings and Ms. Clovelle Stevens, President of the St. Kitts Association of the B.V.I., delivered the vote of thanks. The full representation and participation of both the Nevis Alliance Progressive Society (NAPS) of the B.V.I. and the St. Kitts Association of the B.V.I. at Saturday’s town hall meeting was indicative of the relationship between the two islands, which is at an all-time best.
“We have a better relationship now between the government in Basseterre and the government in Charlestown,” Prime Minister Harris told the town hall audience. “We have a relationship based on mutual respect, and we have said that the things that we are doing now with [the Honourable Premier of Nevis] Vance Amory’s government, we will do them with any other government in Nevis because we are not so much doing it for the government, but for the people,” Dr. Harris added while noting that, “We are giving the government the resources that are required – the government elected by the people – to do some of the programs that need to be done on the island of Nevis.”
The Honourable Prime Minister received great applause as he said: “We have given them budgetary support of over $40 million in a short period of time. Under the former administration, if they got $5 million they got a lot…In less than two years, we have made $40 million available to the government of Nevis – and the St. Kitts government is not broke because we are managing the resources of the country well – because we want unity, and we understand that we all are one: so many friendships, so many relationships, we all are one. Some were born on Nevis and some were born on St. Kitts, but we are citizens. We carry the same passport, and we need to have a government that respects the wishes of the people in Nevis. So better days have come for the people of Nevis.”
Dr. Harris reminded the audience that, under his Team Unity Government, the official Independence Calendar for last year and this year included events in Nevis, such as the State Service of Thanksgiving and the Prime Minister’s Independence Lecture Series, respectively. This represented a departure from the status quo.
“It took Team Unity to make a difference, to take Nevisians out from where they had a sense of isolation, where they had a sense that they didn’t matter anymore,” Prime Minister Harris said.
The Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis added that, during this year’s 33rd Independence Anniversary Celebrations, “For the first time, we took the Governor-General [His Excellency Sir S.W. Tapley Seaton GCMG, CVO, QC, JP] up to the Nevis Performing Arts Centre to meet with students [from Charlestown Secondary School, Gingerland Secondary School and Nevis Sixth Form College], and they had an opportunity to interact with the Governor-General who is their Governor-General, too, and ask questions, understand his life journey and see if they could learn lessons out of that. These things have happened because of your support for a Team Unity administration.”
