ANGUILLA: Not a Business Friendly Environment

Anguilla Summer Fest is the island’s grand annual event which is generating wide spread interest in the region, the combination of Jouvert Morning and the August Monday beach party has made August Monday a massive event and growing. Obviously, it was a very good business decision to combine the two activities which for that day, makes Anguilla the number one destination in the immediate region and the biggest festival of all. August Monday has again put the island in the spotlight in a major way, and quite noticeably a serious mix of all nations have embarked on Anguilla for this national event. The over one hundred nationalities on St Maarten / St Martin and of course the exceptional Dutch / French SXM native massive, which has made the Anguilla August Monday event their very own continues to dominate the event, actually overwhelming the ferry service for that day. The Festival Office must be congratulated for its work and in particular the crowd control which is a growing spectacle, but appears to result in very little incidence of violence or disorder. The Government must also be commended for issuing what was called, “relaxing of the immigration rules” for the Festival; it is believed that this has contributed very favorably to the overall success of the festival.

The Carnival activities, together with the August Monday fest in particular, should give us on Anguilla an indication of what a thriving business environment requires to produce success, especially in our commercial zone, which can boost our economic base. One day! makes quite a difference when we experience an instant magnitude of buying power. Many like me, have questioned why Anguilla has not yet deliberately structured a business environment that would usher the island into modern day shopping and commerce, which offers more direct economic power. Just the value of strategic marketing which, actually bring buying power to the business would change the economic structure of the island. More people chose to visit and vacation on islands that foster business development and offer variety in shopping. This is a very noticeable trend, and our governments should take a cue from our own people, who rather incur extraordinary cost to go to St Martin/St. Maarten to shop and purchase items that could well be bought on Anguilla, St. Martin / St. Maarten is now deem the mega shopping destination in the region. For Anguillians, when all costs are calculated, there is no way that the item can be bought less expensive on St Martin. So it is a given fact that people travel to St. Maarten / St. Martin not only to purchase, but more so for the “friendly business environment.”

We often wonder, will Anguilla ever become business friendly? Where we experience a thriving business community attracting satisfactory numbers to improve the viability of our economy, and offer our visitors the attraction to doing serious shopping on the island. We had never fostered an organized shopping environment, and therefore we have reason, always, to catch the first boat leaving port. It is probably past time that we usher in a new era in business development and create a new and improved business environment. We need to start with our very own people by encourage and promoting a new level of entrepreneurship where our young people are encouraged to start their own businesses, together with a well planned and structured minor foreign element to bring in, that variety and extra boost . It might be a relic of our colonial past that we prefer a hard labor economy and not to indulge in modern day contemporary commerce! The state of our business environment would indicate that we have not quickly adapted any modern standards in the structure of our commerce ideology.

The initiative to combine two cultural island activities into one mega fest and commercial extravaganza bringing the kind of success we are witnessing on August Monday, should motivate us to organize and improve our business environment, which will be guaranteed attraction for new visitors and other types of vacationers to our island all year round.“Anguilla is not a business friendly environment!” and this is quite noticeable when we drive into our business block after making that roundabout off of the airport and George Hill main. The lack of a composed business environment to meet the full demand of the people of Anguilla, and making our visitors and customers happy to find exactly what they are looking for and much more, clearly makes Anguilla, “Not a Business Friendly Environment.”

By: By Elliot J. Harrigan