Friday, July 20, 2012 – A great deal of focus will be placed on enhancing tourism and youth development between Saint Lucia and Italy. This was discussed as Saint Lucia welcomed newly appointed Ambassador Extraordinary of the Italian Republic to Saint Lucia His Excellency Paolo Serpi.

Ambassador Paolo Serpi, on Thursday July 19th  presented his letters of Credence to Saint Lucia’s Governor General Her Excellency Dame Pearlette Louisy.

According to the new diplomat, “there is still room to further develop the relations between our two states; increasing our bilateral relation on tourism, environmental protection and sustainable industry, which certainly prove extremely usable and favorable for both countries.”

Over the years, the Government of Italy has worked with the European Union to champion the cause of countries like Saint Lucia by supporting significant projects.   “As far as international development cooperation is concerned, we also stress the active role played by Italy in favor of Saint Lucia by financing important projects managed by the UN agencies, by CARICOM,  Cariforum and the European Union as they enhance resilience to reduce vulnerability in the Caribbean projects, the Youth projects and many others.”

According to Her Excellency, Dame Pearlette Louisy, such a developmental approach by the Italian government , will bring potential for Saint Lucia to demonstrate a significant representation in the Caribbean Community and contribute to the regional integration effort.

“Your Excellency, I refer to the Memorandum of Understanding signed between Italy and the CARICOM countries which aims at strengthening political, scientific and technical relationships and at promoting development co-operation partnership between the two parties. Saint Lucia and it’s sister countries in the region stand to benefit considerably from this partnership, and we want to place on record our deepest appreciation for this very timely initiative which would see us develop capacity in areas vital to the development or our economies in the fields of trade negotiation and trade promotion, for example, and in the scientific and technical fields.”

Saint Lucia has already confirmed participation in the universal expedition to take place in Milan in 2015.