ST GEORGE’S, Grenada, (CMC) — The Grenada government earned more than $2 million (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cent) from the issuance of work permits last year, Labour Commissioner, Sparkle Grenade Courtney has said.

She said while 890 permits had been handed out to foreign nationals, the department will be introducing a new format for processing working permits in 2025.

“At the Department of Labour, we administer the work permit programme and for the past year we processed so far 890 work permits in varying sectors …such as construction, tourism and hospitality, the yachting sector, professional services, at a value of over $2 million,” she said.

“This is a revenue activity for the government of Grenada,” she said, noting that last year the focus was also on the legislative procedures that govern the work permit process with a view to improving in 2025.

The Estimate of Revenue and Expenditure for 2024 shows that in 2023, the government earned EC$1,879,387 through work permits and projected that it will earn EC$2,027,022 in 2024 and EC$2,151,065 in 2025.

Courtney said in 2025 plans include digitalising the work permit process to ensure the process is quicker, more accessible and in keeping with the policy position of the cabinet to digitalise government service.

The labour commissioner also disclosed that towards the end of last year, the department commenced a series of consultations with key stakeholders to bring them up to date with the proposed changes and amendments to the work permit process.

“We serve the business community, we serve government ministries and departments, we serve the religious community, we serve the promoters, we serve a wide cross of the society and therefore to improve the process we need to hear from our stakeholders and we started a series of consultation with them,” she said.

“We have already started to receive significant and important feedback that will inform a new and improved work permit process in 2025,” she said while explaining that the department is conducting this process together with the Guyana-based Caribbean Community (Caricom) Secretariat, given the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME) that allows for the free movement of goods, skills labour and finances across the region.

“Caricom will be introducing free movement which will also affect the work permit process and this means that some categories of persons in Caricom will no longer be required to have work permits to seek employment in Grenada,” she said.