The House of Assembly, on Tuesday, July 10, approved a Motion for a loan of five million, six hundred thousand US dollars – or fifteen million, one hundred and twenty thousand EC – to the Government of Anguilla from the Caribbean Development Bank. The loan is in support of the island’s recovery from Hurricane Irma.
The Motion, for a Resolution to that effect, was read by Chief Minister and Minister of Finance, Mr. Victor Banks. It has authorised him, on behalf of the Government of Anguilla, to borrow the above loan in Eastern Caribbean currency to meet the island’s fiscal obligations for 2018.
The Chief Minister gave this explanation: “This Honourable House might want to know what facilitated this loan process. Mr. Speaker, we are fortunate to be part of a region which has institutions that understand the plight of our peoples. In this context, the Caribbean Development Bank, based in our region, is made up of Officials, Administrative Staff and a Board which are conversant with the issues that affect small states.
“Of such, on the passage of Hurricane Irma, they approached the Government of Anguilla recognising that the Government had commitments to them and suggested that, in an effort to meet those obligations in the longer term that, in the short term, a very concessionary loan is available to all member states of the region [affected by the hurricane] so that they could focus on the recovery efforts…with regard repairing critical infrastructure, schools, hospitals and so on. They will be able to use those resources for that purpose and allow a recovery support loan facility to be put in place to meet their commitments so that they would not be in default.
“As a consequence, Mr. Speaker, the Governor and myself, with instructions from Executive Council, and the Ministry of Finance, accepted the offer from the Caribbean Development Bank. The Permanent Secretary, Finance, attended a meeting in Jamaica just recently and I would have had the opportunity to further make the case and present to the Caribbean Development Bank aspects of a Medium Term Economic and Fiscal Plan and [give] some indication of where we are in the recovery process.”
Chief Minister Banks added: “I want to express here, in this House, my gratitude to the Caribbean Development Bank and its leadership, the management and staff, for its support to this region particularly in the case of Anguilla. We have never defaulted on any of our commitments to that institution over the years that I have been in Government and part of the political directorate. So I thank the Bank for its support, Mr. Speaker, and I commend this Motion to this Honourable House.”
The Motion received the full support of all members of the House, with the Government’s side, in particular, commenting on the positive recovery efforts made in Anguilla so far. It was suggested that such positive efforts could have the effect of inspiring donors to contribute to Anguilla’s recovery. Could this resilience in Anguilla have, to some extent, inspired the Caribbean Development Bank to approach the Government of Anguilla with the offer of the current loan?
