by Bennette Roach
The Hon. Premier Reuben T Meade returned from the UK where he attended, primarily at the invitation of the UK Prime Minister David Cameron, meetings with respect to what the Premier describes, “pressures were being brought on the British government because the Prime Minister was taking over the chairmanship of G8…”
After filing his report on the global tax issues with the UK and its Overseas Territories (OTs) the premier took questions as to the progress he had made with respect to the development of Little Bay, the town centre and the new port at Carrs Bay, all the focus of the Strategic Growth Plan.
He cautioned that he never said anything about Arab investors as the question was put to him made mention. “I’m just saying in relation to investment proposal – they were not willing to support that approach.”
He added, “…basically, we now need to go and either renegotiate with that grouping of investors, or we just need to go back out to market, to see if we can find other investors.”
These were to be investors, who do not necessarily want the same conditions as the ones which the British say they are not willing to allow Montserrat to go down that particular road.
Another time, speaking on ZJB radio he expanded on the foregoing. “The discussions which I had with both DFID and the Foreign Office three weeks ago in London, is that they are still very much supportive.”
He said, the initial discussions which were held with the Minister in Montserrat was that there was a link between the private investor and the port. “We have been able to get an extension of time – we have also been able to move the discussion from forcing the government into signing any and any deal in order to get the British investment.”
At that point the Premier was upbeat and hopeful as he said: “So we are in fact now back on track where they are saying you’re moving in the right direction we now need to put a structured argument to a higher up in the UK and …cabinet people to be in a position to say, can we go the rout of 100% financing of the port development excluding the Marina.”
In April this year Golf Classic Ltd submitted a letter of intent to the Montserrat Development Cooperation (MDC) for the construction of a 150 room hotel and 20 luxury villas on Potato Hill. The Premier had reported that GoM and MDC would react immediately.
In the meantime, in the UK commissioned report contradictory at times from ICAI, the GoM sees further problems.
“In the absence of a clear strategic framework, however, it is likely to prove necessary to revisit the detailed plans and to identify alternative ways of proceeding which are less costly or involve greater private sector investment,” the report stated with regards to the Little Bay, town development and port. (see) http://www.themontserratreporter.com/uk-dfid-mrat-icai-confusion/
Any pics of port or potato hill or the area
