Mayor: Business booming in San Fernando

San Fernando mayor Junia Regrello believes the recent rollback of covid19 restrictions has already led to economic growth in the city. And he predicts there will be further growth after the SoE was lifted on Wednesday.

Regrello made the assessment while speaking at a ceremony on Thursday to commission the new San Fernando West Indian Reference Library.

He explained, “Even before the state of emergency ended, I saw an upsurge of traffic from business and around San Fernando.

“Also, several companies are opening branches around. Recently, Pennywise opened a branch on Lower High Street and Rattans moved to Lower High Street.

“What it shows is that there’s a demonstration of confidence in the economy and the city of San Fernando.”

But in the face of more activity in the city, Regrello isn’t fearful there’ll also be an increase in crime. He said he met with police on Thursday to review the city’s crime plan for the upcoming Christmas season.

From next week, Regrello said, there will be joint patrols in and around the city, with a focus on High Street.

“San Fernando has been moderately safe, and I don’t want to talk too soon, but in terms of the discipline and behaviour, we don’t have the challenges that other areas may have, and thank God for that.”

On street vending for Christmas, he said the corporation has come to an agreement with vendors.

“Street vending is something that we inherited, it has been there for too long. It’s an issue where you have third generations vending, so it requires some understanding in terms of the dynamics and how we operate in a way that...does not interfere with the genuine and the bonafide business people.

“So we have worked out a ration where they are allowed three days per week, but not on main days.”

President of the Greater San Fernando Chamber of Commerce Kiran Singh said businesses are discussing different logistics to see how they can benefit from the curfew being lifted.

Singh said, “Business – especially in the entertainment sector, the bars, casinos, cinemas – will not be able to open hypothetically 24/7. It will take some time before we start opening later hours.

"But we will see an uptick in business activity in respect to these businesses and certainly it will have a downstream effect on other businesses.”

With rising covid19 cases and deaths, Singh called on people to get vaccinated and do their part in ensuring the situation is controlled.