In May 2013 St. Lucia joined fellow OECS member-states Antigua, Dominica and St. Vincent and the Grenadines as the newest member of ALBA (The Bolivarian Alliance for the People of Our America).
The decision was announced following the VIII Meeting of the ALBA Council of Economic Complementation in Caracas on April 23, which concluded with a seven-point resolution that announced the inclusion of St. Lucia in the regional bloc.
The ALBA meeting took place in Caracas ahead of the inauguration of new Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro and was attended by several Caribbean leaders, including prime ministers, leading delegations representing other OECS ALBA member-states.
St. Lucia was represented by Prime Minister Dr Kenny D. Anthony and Agriculture Minister Moses Jn Baptiste.
At the meeting announcing St. Lucia’s membership, it was also decided that the Commercial Fair of ALBA countries will be held in Caracas in July 2013, to boost member-states’ economies and help shield them from the more powerful nations.
The ALBA Council of Economic Complementation comprises ministers designated by each member-country.
It is a forum for the coordination of strategies, policies and projects geared towards productive, agro-food, tourism, industrial, energy, commercial, financial and technological complementation to eventually structure a shared development economic zone among ALBA member-countries.
Likewise, at that meeting, the ALBA Council decided to strengthen their commercial and financial integration by giving impetus to the development of a regional bank and the use of its virtual Currency of Compensation of payments, the SUCRE.
St. Lucia’s joining of ALBA was referred to by Governor-General Dame PearletteLouisy during her just-concluded Throne Speech and was sanctioned by the Cabinet of Ministers weeks before.
The government has also indicated that St. Lucia will also join the PetroCaribe Initiative, through which Venezuela makes fuel available to Caribbean states at attractive prices and with long terms of repayment.
Prime Minister Dr Kenny D. Anthony’s administration had signalled immediately after returning to office that it would move to diversify the country’s external relations to boost its levels of economic cooperation with Latin American states.
The governor-general also indicated that as a result of this new foreign policy outreach, St. Lucia will also follow other OECS member-states and appoint a non-Resident Ambassador to Latin America.