St Helena : St. Helena Updates Draft Tourism Investment Policies
Submitted by Saint Helena Herald (Juanita Brock) 06.09.2006 (Article Archived on 20.09.2006)
Public consultation has concluded on the Draft Tourism and Investment Policies, with the Office of the Chief Secretary receiving a wealth of comments from members of the public.
Update on Draft Tourism and Investment Policies
Public consultation has concluded on the Draft Tourism and Investment Policies, with the Office of the Chief Secretary receiving a wealth of comments from members of the public.
Most of these were picked up in public consultation meetings, although a lot were also sent as written submissions.
All comments have now been collated into a working matrix, which is to be discussed by Executive Council.
The matrix comprises some 80 pages and covers the main areas raised during public consultation. Additionally it proposes amendments to the draft policies which takes account of a number of suggestions and comments made by the public.
Acting Chief Secretary, Linda Clemett, said: “Many key issues have been raised and already we have seen a pattern of those that are most popular. These will be addressed along with a number of the other points that were raised.”
She added “We want to include a section on what is important to St Helena, although we did not get a lot of feedback on this. Additionally there was some concern over how competition from inward investors could affect local businesses. This is something we will need to seriously think about.”
A number of people also expressed concern over land issues and, in particular, the fact that the Land Development Control Plan had not been approved by Executive Council. The Land Development Control Plan is now being considered and it is hoped that it will be approved soon.
Fast tracking work permits was another issue that generated a lot of discussion, and having taken comments into consideration work has commenced on drafting a policy.
Due to the volume of comments received, work on the policies is taking a little longer than expected. However, the St Helena Government hopes to have them in place as soon as possible.
Public Relations/Information Office
Office of the Chief Secretary
1 September 2006
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