Fellow Anguillians, I am happy to speak to you today as we stand on the threshold of a new decade – and a new year. 2020 will go down in history as one of the greatest moments for our nation. 2020, therefore, signals an end but it also signals a time of renewal. Yes, 2020 is the year of new beginnings and I believe the best is yet to come. Let us individually and collectively recommit to making our nation proud, strong and free.
53 years ago, the Father of Our Nation, the late great James Ronald Webster, fought with other brave and noble Anguillians to end the plight of our captivity. 1967 was the year our founding fathers engaged in the pursuit of a dream for us to be proud, strong and free.
53 years later we have had some moments to relish and celebrate along the way – but the journey to that perfect place of proud, strong, and free, is far from over. In the pursuit of our eternal happiness, freedom and fortitude, we encountered two of the greatest unimaginable devastating events ever recorded in the history of mankind that have tested our tenacity as a people. My faith in who we are, and in what we can achieve, has grown tremendously in the last ten years.
The great financial collapse of the world that unfolded in 2007, swept our shores with a force as an enduring wave of destruction wreaking havoc on businesses and investments half of which had never yet been told. A decade later, while we were still reeling from the impact of this financial meltdown, Hurricane Irma, the worst hurricane in the history of the world, made landfall here in Anguilla on September 6, 2017, and shattered what was left of our already fragile economy – and further distorted the outlook for a bright future.
This rock, Anguilla, our home, our only sanctuary in a cruel world has been threatened before. Yet our ancestors did not wallow in the mire of discontent despite their fears. So we too must not allow these trying times to define us and stifle our hope. Let us not forget that we are the sons and daughters of those who, despite their impossibilities, still chose to sing “I shall not be moved.” Let us not forget that some declared us a dry barren land – unfit for human habitation – yet we have seen God provide rivers in this desert. History has always recorded our many sufferings, and near fatalities, but its final chapters always had to speak of our victories through faith – the substance of things hoped for – the evidence of things not seen.
2020 will be the year we join hands and sing with meaning the words of our founding fathers “with hearts and souls we will build our nation proud strong and free.” For 2020, we are set to build back our primary schools with cafeterias, and our high school with a state of the art track and field. As we build our new polyclinic, modern pharmacy to support our modernized hospital, let us also forge ahead with the national agenda for the expansion our airport to include direct flights from the US mainland and further afield. 2020 is poised to complete the designs for, and commence the construction of, the Blowing Point new Ferry Terminal and the Chapel Hill Road. In 2020, after much travail and unraveling of contentious matters, we are in the final stages of settling the complex matter of the bankers’ pension. We are also resolved to deepen our commitment to the preservation of banking, as an institution, with the continued transformation of NCBA from Bridge Bank Status to permanent regular banking status.
The ten years milestone of the Water Corporation of Anguilla is commemorated with a never heard of, or seen before, provision of water 24/7.
The official opening of our new state of the art Control Tower with GPS systems, new lighting system on the runway, 10 feet high fencing, and our new state of the art Fire and Rescue Building, should take place within the first quarter of 2020. Our great service men and women now work in an environment conducive to their worth with three brand new state of the art fire engines that are essential to raising the profile of the CJL International Airport from a category 3 to a 9.
Those working in the tourism industry, at all levels, should take a bow as we were recognized 3 years in a row as the number 1 destination worldwide. We remain committed to the rejuvenation of our economy as demonstrated in the brilliant restoration of electricity in a mere 3 months: providing lights before Christmas after Irma. We are set in 2020 to heighten this rejuvenation as we finalize two major direct foreign investments signings that have been in the making in the last four years. Coupled with the projects in the restoration programme, Crocus Bay and Rendezvous Bay should be the highlights of major construction for the foreseeable future.
On behalf of the Government and people of Anguilla, I wish all a Happy and Prosperous New Year – 2020!! I am confident that the best is yet to come! May God bless Anguilla.
