Anguilla’s Chief Minister, Osbourne Fleming, says that his Government has been told that the Flag Project is being considered for transfer into new ownership but nothing has been confirmed.

He made the statement at his weekly press conference on Wednesday, February 25.

Chief Minister Osbourne Fleming and Hon. Victor Banks

“On Tuesday we had a representative from Flag who made a presentation to us regarding the way forward for the project,” he reported. “It has been established by us that this project will one day resume. However, there are a number of conditions which have to be met before the project resumes.

“We have been told by the representative from Flag that the project is now being considered to be transferred into new ownership. This is what is on the board. Nothing authentic, nothing permanent has been established – only to say that there is interest by certain people to assume this project in the future…I don’t want to go into any specifics until we have something real to say. I think this is a touchy situation and we must be conscious of what the repercussions will be if wrong information is given to the public. All in all, I just want to say we are a little comfortable in the fact that there seems to be some interest by a company to take over this project. This will not happen tomorrow. It will take a while. I will keep you abreast as we go by.”

The Chief Minister did not meet with the home-owners as originally planned. He said there were 32 of them in the United States and a meeting would be held with them or their representatives at a later date. He said the land on which their residencies stood was freehold property and indicated that they might eventually arrange to get the homes completed themselves.

Mr. Fleming said the discussions with the Flag representative also touched on the golf course itself. “That has been a topic that we have been pushing for. There has been interest even in Anguilla by the Anguilla Golf Association, and some hotel developers, to approach Government as well as the present owners regarding the golf course,” he said. “We have agreed to sit with these parties involved, the hoteliers and the Golf Association, and to see how we can quickly look at some solution to this problem.”

The Chief stated that he understood that a group would be coming to Anguilla next week to look at the project, but he had no actual details.

“Out of the discussions…we made it very clear that whoever is to take over Flag has to come prepared to make good the money outstanding to the Anguillian vendors,” he stressed. “There will be no let up on that. We have an obligation to ensure that they are paid. We made it clear that there must be a discussion with all vendors in Anguilla before this matter is settled.” The project is said to owe the suppliers in Anguilla some 16 million East Caribbean dollars.

Mr. Fleming spoke on a number of other matters, among them being the Social Security Bill passed in the House of Assembly on Tuesday. He said the investment subsidiary to be established was a means of using some of the money for the benefit of the people of the island. He however said that the Government would never borrow any money from Social Security to pay salaries and other Government expenses.

He suggested that, for example, Social Security may wish to invest in a Government Administration Building which would result in monthly returns and that such an undertaking was now possible under the new amendment to the legislation.

He also said that the Community College could be an area in which Social Security could invest. “They can think in terms of buying Cinnamon Reef and then renting it to the Government. If Social Security doesn’t do that, it would mean that the Government would have to find the money to buy Cinnamon Reef for which the asking price is 7.5 million US dollars.”

The Chief Minister stated that there was a desperate need to stimulate the economy and to have money in circulation in Anguilla to provide jobs.

Minister of Finance Victor Banks, who attended the press conference briefly, said the Government had undertaken to review the 2009 budget next month in view of the financial and economic situation affecting Anguilla. He stated that an effort would be made to cut out expenditure that the Government could do without. “We don’t want to cut out any areas of spending which can generate economic activity, or to take away disposal income away from persons who work for Government. That would be the worse thing to do, but areas of expenditure or capital projects that we anticipated starting now we might have to withdraw on those and certainly [on] allowances that we believe are not necessary. We have to look at those as well.”

| Printer-friendly page | Send this article to a friend |

World News