The islands of St Kitts and Nevis were originally settled by Indians from South America. The UK, France and, to a lesser extent, Spain squabbled over possession throughout the 16th century. By 1623, the UK had prevailed and set about cultivating sugar on plantations worked by large numbers of slaves. It was not until September 1983 that the islands became an independent state within the Commonwealth. Since then, the dominant issues for the nation have been the relative positions of the two islands of St Kitts & Nevis. The possibility of a merger with other Leeward Islands and the Virgin Islands
has been debated, as has the growing problem of drug trafficking, in which St Kitts, like most small Caribbean islands, has become involved.
The people of Nevis are themselves deeply split, roughly between the population of the southern towns, which favor independence, and the rest of the island, which does not. Were Nevis to become independent, it would be the world’s smallest Sovereign State after the Vatican, which naturally gives rise to concerns about its economic viability. The dominant party in St Kitts & Nevis since independence has been the conservative People’s Action Movement (PAM led by Lindsay Grant. PAM had a role in all of the three Governments following independence but lost all of its seats in the National Assembly at the latest poll in March 2000. The principal beneficiary of PAM’s demise was the Labor Party, which now enjoys a comfortable majority under the leadership of premier Denzil Douglas.
The remaining elected members of the Assembly belong to the two Nevis-based parties, the Concerned Citizens’ Movement and the Nevis Reformation Party (NRP). Nevis has its own Assembly, which is dominated by these two parties and which, in late 1997, voted unanimously in favor of independence for the island. However, a referendum held in August 1998 failed to provide the two-thirds majority necessary to give constitutional force to the Nevis Assembly’s decision. Although in abeyance for the moment, the issue of independence for Nevis remains a live one.
GovernmentThe Head of State of the Federation of St Christopher and Nevis (the islands’ formal title) is the British monarch, represented locally by a Governor-General. Legislative power is vested in the Governor-General and the National Assembly, which has 11 members elected directly by universal suffrage for a five-year term and three appointed members. Nevis Island also has a separate legislature that, subject to certain conditions written into the constitution, may secede from the Government of the Federation.
EconomySt Kitts & Nevis has an agricultural economy, the mainstay of which is the sugar industry. As the world sugar price has been very low in the past few years and several sugar crops have been badly damaged by hurricanes and other adverse climatic conditions, St Kitts & Nevis has come to rely on regular injections of foreign aid to prevent economic collapse.
The government has responded by trying to broaden the base of the economy; bananas, yams and sweet potatoes are now important crops and the cultivation of rice and coffee is developing. Fishing is also growing in commercial importance.
Manufacturing is dominated by sugar products, and textiles and drinks are also produced. A thriving electronics and data-processing sector is the principal success story from the government’s diversification policy, as is tourism which is developing rapidly, particularly on Nevis, and now brings about US$70 million a year into the economy.
More recently, and especially on Nevis, an ‘offshore’ financial services industry has developed: there are now over 10,000 foreign businesses registered on the island and the government has been obliged to meet new international standards regarding the investigation of money-laundering. Unemployment is among the lowest in the Caribbean.
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