Castries – Tuesday, January 25, 2011 – The Saint Lucia Air and Sea Ports Authority (SLASPA) in collaboration with The Special Advisory Services Division (SASD) of the Commonwealth Secretariat (COMSEC) and VISET Malta Plc, a limited liability company and operators of the Valletta Waterfront and Valletta Cruise Port, have all collaborated to perform a Port Productivity Improvement Study on Saint Lucia’s two seaports. The main objective of the project is to conduct a study to improve port productivity and reduce operations costs at the seaports of Castries and Vieux Fort.

Speaking at the launch, held at the Bay Gardens Beach Resort today, Mr. Sujeevan Perera, Advisor (Trade) SASD COMSEC stated “The study is being undertaken with the mandate of the SASD to improve the export competitiveness of the member states.” John Portelli Chief Executive Officer, VISET Malta plc said “The expected outcomes from the Project will be to improve labour productivity in the ports of St Lucia; to reduce the costs of cargo and passenger operations; to increase port efficiency; and to benchmark the ports of St Lucia with its competitors. We intend to organize a number of briefing meetings in St Lucia and anticipate that the inputs of the stakeholders and the opportunity for a frank exchange of views will be highly beneficial to the process and the end goals we are trying to achieve.”

Also speaking at the ceremony, Mr. Adrian Hilaire, Director of Seaports said “this is not only timely but a much needed study which will assist us in developing and enhancing our services and efficiency levels at the seaports. It gives us the opportunity to understand how our performance compares to that of industry norms and will assist in meeting our objective of St. Lucia becoming one of the leading ports in
the region.”