The Hon. Prime Minister of Saint Lucia, Allen Chastanet, and the Chairman of   Dessert Star Holdings, Mr. Teo Ah Khing, made a presentastion to representatives of the media earlier this week. The presentation served to provide an update on the Pearl of The Caribbean project.

The prime minister opened the proceedings by detailing stages in the construction of proposed several hotels.

“I was very happy to see that equipment had started to arrive for the Sab Wisha Project. So we are looking forward to that hotel commencing by early March,” he said. “We are still finalizing arrangements with the Ritz Carlton, we do have some snags but nothing that cannot be overcome. What we are trying to achieve will require us to bring a document to parliament. We are trying to ensure that we follow the right parliamentary processes so it means that at the next parliamentary sitting we will have to bring regulations into play which will then allow us to transfer the funds over to the National Economic Fund, which will then allow us to transfer funds to Invest Saint Lucia in order for us to facilitate the loan agreement that we have with Ritz Carlton.

I was also in discussions with our developers in Cannelles, and they have assured me that everything is on pace with that project and they are hoping to make a formal announcement on the date they intend to break ground on that particular project.”

The prime minister went on to mention the progress made on the horse race track.

“You would have noticed that work has recommenced on the horseracing track. We had a bit of a hiatus because we were in a land dispute over lands owned by Invest Saint Lucia that were leased to an individual. And although government had proceeded with a compulsory acquisition, every effort was made for us to arrive at a private treaty, an agreement with that individual without having to use the force of law to achieve that, so I am happy to report that we were able to achieve that and enter into a private treaty with that individual in terms of compensating him for the lease of the land that he had.”

The press conference was held on Jan 30.