Deputy Prime Minister, St. Clair Leacock speaking at the presentation ceremony in Kingstown on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2025.
The New Democratic Party administration will focus on human development even as it pursues important public infrastructure during its first term in government, Deputy Prime Minister St. Clair Leacock says.
He told a ceremony in Kingstown on Tuesday, where Taiwan donated198 tons of rice and two containers of charitable goods to the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), that Kingstown’s relationship with Taipei “is one of a handout, but always a hand up.
“They’re always bringing us along with them to that point where we can truly say, because we are not there yet, but we aspire to be — a first-world country. And in that regard, we pay very careful attention to the intangibles,” said Leacock, who is also minister of national security, disaster management and immigration.
He said that for a country to march forward, it has to understand and accept the importance of its people.
“They are the reasons for us being entrusted with power and authority,” he said, adding that Minister of Social Welfare, Shevern John, who also spoke at the ceremony, often says that the NDP administration is “a people-centric one.
“And so, it’s a good opportunity to highlight that the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines would note over the next five years that the concentration of this Dr. [Godwin] Friday administration — and I raised my voice deliberately — will be on moving and lifting our people to a higher level of human development,” Leacock said.
He said this will be reflected in the government’s policies and programmes, adding, “not for A minute ignoring the importance of bricks and mortar infrastructure, but they will take a second place to people’s development.
“That means we are not moving away for a minute from the commitment given to lift basic wages, human conditions at the workplace, health and safety; education will be always dominant in our pursuit of human development,” Leacock said.
“But perhaps most important of all at this time in the political history of St. Vincent the Grenadines, we want to drive self-belief, integrity and a sense among all our people that you are worthy.”
The deputy prime minister said that under the NDP administration, SVG will become “a society of second chance and opportunity, and with your government always giving you that helping hand, be assured that at all times that help and assistance you want is just around the corner”.
The NDP spent almost 25 years in opposition after being voted out of office in March 2001, but surged to victory in the November 2025 general election, winning 14 of the 15 parliamentary seats.
Leacock said that the government is in its earliest stages, adding, “and understandably, in some avenues, we have seen a little impatience, because there has been that much deprivation across the board.
“One by one, one day at a time, … we will deliver and we will attend to your needs. To a man in this cabinet, we know what we are about,” Leacock said.
“For those who haven’t got it, we don’t need your help. We don’t need your help. We know what we are about, and we are out to build a new St. Vincent,” he further stated, without providing any context about to whom he was referring.
Leacock reiterated his government’s commitment to maintaining Taipei-Kingstown ties, as Friday had done in a radio interview on Dec. 24.
“… this is a long-standing relationship we’ll build on it,” he said, adding that there are a number of things that the government would like to do, but he leaves foreign policy statements to the prime minister and minister of foreign affairs.
“But I have every reason to believe that we are comfortable in the continuity, as is demonstrated here this morning, and it augurs well for long-term development, for the Taiwan-St. Vincent relationship,” Leacock said.
He asked the Taiwan Ambassador to SVG, Fiona Huei-Chun Fan, to convey to Taipei “the best regards of this prime minister and this grateful nation for the substantial sovereign work you have done for the people, those who are here and those who are in your geography of the world”.
Leacock noted that the relationship had survived 17 years of NDP governance previously.
“We are in the wicket again, padded up, and we are going to bat for a long, long time; a long, long time. Get accustomed to this relationship,” he said.
