I am very saddened by the news that Alpart will be closing its doors very shortly. Not only will this hurt the economies of St Elizabeth and Manchester, but it will have a devastating effect on the country's foreign-exchange earnings.

So, the question that must now be asked is, how are we going to replace such a significant loss, considering the global crisis that we are in? Other than tourism, what other natural resource do we have that can produce real foreign exchange? The only one that comes to mind is agriculture; but is this feasible considering that for the last 20 years instead of locally producing our own foodstuff, all we are doing is importing these items.

Unquestionably, the blame for this policy must be attributed to the Patterson administration. All this policy did was create more hardship for our local farmers, and increased our import bill. My only hope is that the Government will reverse these policies and allow our country to be once again agriculturally productive.

I am, etc.,

Dr MICHAEL THOMPSON

michaelt@aol.com

Hollywood, Florida