KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, CMC – The St. Vincent and the Grenadines government has secured US$50 in loans from the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD).
Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, who was part of the inaugural Caribbean Community (CARICOM)-Saudi Arabia summit held in Riyadh last week, said that the new loans would bring to US$66 million received from the fund this year.
Speaking on a radio program here, Gonsalves said that at least US$30 million of the funding would go to housing repair and reconstruction “because we haven’t done all that is to be done concerning recovery after La Soufriere volcano.
“We have done it substantially, but we have more to do and help low-income housing and Lives to Live program, housing program across the country.
“Then we have a substantial number also for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of buildings in respect of education — some rehabilitation of primary and secondary schools, for the construction of a Union Island TVET center, and the construction of a Brighton secondary school,” he said.
Gonsalves said the authorities would seek to establish a technical and vocational education and training center on Union Island in the southern Grenadines.
“… we have to strengthen our technical vocational educational training, which we have been doing remarkably over the last 22 years plus, but we have to do something down in Union Island,” he said, adding that the government is also looking to construct a secondary school in East St. George, the only constituency in the country that does not have one.
“Then a lot of health facilities. In addition to the $6 million I was talking about in the first tranche, we want to construct a polyclinic in Calliaqua on the site of the Calliaqua clinic.
“We have to do the reconstruction of the Byera Health Centre. We want to do one down in Paget Farm and build one up in Redemption Sharpes. I’d given that promise in the Parliament.”
Earlier this year, Parliament approved borrowing US$16 million from the SFD, and Gonsalves said six million US dollars would be spent in the healthcare sector.
“A centerpiece of that is a modern health center which we will construct in South Rivers, and we will do some repairs with some monies out of that six million US dollars because the six million dollars is more than for South Rivers — to do things like in Colonarie and Park Hill and Diamond and so on.”
The other US$10 million is for “cultural, artistic hubs, including lots of physical facilities, including a place for a national orchestra, for dance, for a recording studio, for theatre and so on.”
The prime minister said that an estimated US$50 million would go to sporting facilities, “including something at Stubbs to strengthen that and also improve there but also, very importantly, out at Diamond — the further development there at Diamond and some other money is about some community building facilities.”
He said the government will invest an additional US$7-8 million of its own money.
“So, you’re talking about a number 57, 58 million dollars US, which is a big number in addition to the first 16.”
The prime minister said the US$66 million has been approved at the level of the credit committee of the SFD “and within the next couple of weeks, they will be approved by the executive board of the Saudi Fund, and they will come here with the agreements, hopefully early in December, that we can sign them and then we take them to Parliament shortly after that.
“And once that happens, we get going,” Gonsalves said, adding that Saudi Arabia also has investment funds, “and we go into that source and work with them and the private sector.”
He said he had “a good session” with the Saudi minister and vice minister for investment.
“And there was a session with companies introducing themselves to us and the significant projects from an investment standpoint now, not the state borrowing money to do government projects.
“But a project like another cruise ship [berth], a modern one, which could accommodate larger vessels where the old port is located … and with attendant facilities including cultural and sporting facilities, indoor.”
Gonsalves said his government wants to have a private-public partnership in this regard.
“We have a lot of land there, valuable land, and also to link with the [proposed] tunnel underneath Cane Garden Point and towards the modern city at Arnos Vale, where the anchor project, as we intend it, the EC$270 million (One Ec dollar=US$0.37 cents) acute referral hospital which, should begin sometime hopefully by February or thereabouts.”
He said the government intended construction to begin this year on the acute referral hospital.
“The problem with the acute referral hospital funding is we have to match two sets of funds,” he said, noting that more than 60 percent of it will come from the World Bank at one percent interest over 45 years.
Then, there is a further 30-plus percent funding through the OPEC Fund for International Development. Prime Minister Gonsalves indicates that while this is a soft loan, it is “not as generous” as the World Bank.
“And I tell you this, to have two sets of funding entities, each of them has its own set of rules, and sometimes to reconcile them is time-consuming.
“You know, and when you think you over the hump with one, there’s something else which arises. But we’re now over all of these things, and we’re on our way,” he added.
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