Caribbean News Now
By Global News Correspondent
Turks and Caicos Islands Governor, Gordon Wetherell
PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos Islands — Britain will be providing the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) with a financial package (line of credit) totaling $260 million. It appears this will facilitate paying down many of the old debts inherited by the Interim Government from the last internal administration of the Progressive National Party (PNP).
In a press statement on Thursday, TCI Governor Gordon Wetherell said the UK’s Department for International Development has now informed Parliament of its intention to provide a loan guarantee to the TCI government.
“This would enable us to secure a new commercial bank lending that will refinance existing debt and cover further projected deficits before we achieve a fiscal surplus in the financial year ending March 2013. Proposals for commercial lending have been received from a number of banks. The details of the package are still to be finalised. The lending will be for an amount of up to $260 million for up to five years,” Wetherell said.
Douglas Parnell, leader of the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM), has been instrumental in petitioning Britain for a large assistance package to put the territory’s challenged economy back on its feet.
TCI PDM-leader-Douglas-Parnell
Parnell and other past and present PDM officials have travelled to Britain twice to carry the message that the TCI people were encountering undue hardships. Prior to May 2010, when a changeover occurred in Britain’s government, this appeared to be a difficult task.
In a press release on Thursday welcoming the announcement, the PDM said, “The announcement today by the Governor’s office of a package of financial support for the TCI is good news and a great and bold step towards pulling the TCI Government and our people out of a period of uncertainty.”
The statement went on to say, “We remind all the voters and stakeholders in the Turks and Caicos Islands that the current financial condition was inherited by the Interim Administration and that new revenue and expenditure measures were inevitable after a devastating period of financial chaos in governance by the Progressive National Party (PNP) where much of what the people of the Turks and Caicos Islands had worked so hard for over the years was squandered and then compounded with the international economic downturn.”
Upon receiving the news, Parnell sent an email to top party officials, which read: “Let us press on toward the mark of restoring our country’s solid standing in the region by rebuilding confidence in the Turks and Caicos Islands. One of the ways we can do this is by speaking positively and insisting that our God given right to grow and prosper and aspire to build a better tomorrow for our children is never forgotten by those in authority. We must move closer, even during the interim administration, toward fulfilling this vision in our homeland. To supporters of our great party, we remind you that we promised our people after the last general elections that even though we only received 43 percent of the vote that we would act as though we always represent 100 percent of the people.”
