POINTE XPRESS: Opposition inspired claims that the government has embarked on a ‘give-away’ of large tracks of lands have been strongly rejected by the government.
There has been growing controversy surrounding these claims with the leader of the United Progressive Party, Harold Lovell, being among those who have made the charge.
However, during Thursday’s post-Cabinet Press Briefing, Information Minister Melford Nicholas, said the ‘furor’ that has been created over the alleged land-giveaway is nothing but ‘a false alarm’.
He said the lands in question – over 500 acres in the Seaforth area near Five Islands – were not crown lands and were in fact acquired through private hands.
Nicholas noted that the government went to parliament recently to amend the Special Economic Zones legislation to allow for the reduction in size of lands required for the establishment of these zones. Previously, it required a minimum of 1,500 acres for these special zones.
The amendments brought that amount down to 500. Under the amendment, an investor has approached the government with plans to establish one such economic zone at the Seaforth area. He revealed that the government gave the greenlight for the project to proceed, noting that it would bring significant benefits to the country. He noted that under the previous UPP administration, the same lands were earmarked for a major tourism development which never materialized.
“It’s not like that area has not been earmarked for large scale development before. In the previous administration, the leader of the UPP, Lovell, would recall that he had touted that area for a development called Azure Project to be a multi-scale tourism project. It never came to fruition, but at the same time the UPP leader is giving the public the impression that we have given away the lands.
Nothing could be further from the truth. These are private lands, much like the lands acquired by Yida were acquired under the previous administration from private sources,” Nicholas explained. The Information Minister also recalled that after Yida received the ‘greenlight’ to proceed with the project, there were much criticisms vented in the public domain stating that the project would result in much environmental and other degradation.
This, he noted, has not happened. Instead, he added, significant developments are taking place within the Yida project which will redound to the benefit of the entire country. Nicholas also gave, as an example, the American University of Antigua (AUA) which has been established within the Free Trade Zone at Coolidge.
He further explained that while the university benefits from much of the concessions under the zone, its operation has been a positive impact on the overall economy of Antigua and Barbuda with the spinoffs from its students through rental of accommodations, motor vehicles, and their patronage of restaurants and other such establishments.
According to the minister, these special economic zones are part of the economic infrastructure which is being put in place to secure the future economic growth of Antigua and Barbuda. Meanwhile, an agreement between the UPP Administration and Millennia–Montaigne Developments (Antigua) Ltd. has been made public.
The agreement was signed on July 26, 2011, by representatives of the company and then UPP Finance Minister Harold Lovell. In fact, the records show that over several years, the project appeared in the annual Budget Statement delivered to the parliament when Lovell held the finance portfolio in that administration.
The land was the subject of litigation for some time but even after that was settled, the UPP administration still pinned much hope on its start-up to help change the country’s economic fortunes.
“Whereas Yida invested US$200M to date, this project which Harold bragged about for several years, never yielded a cent in investment. Notwithstanding, in excess of $11M was waived by UPP/Harold et al, to transfer the title.
The government and people lost $11M in taxes and got nothing in return,” declared one government source. Additionally, the source noted that the concessions granted to the developer of the proposed economic zone are like those the UPP had granted to the Azure Project.
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I dare Melford Nicholas and any of his BLIND colleagues to show us FROM THE LICENSE where Antigua & Barbuda will benefit.
As a matter of fact, I double dare any of them.
They have carefully documented what the ‘investor/investors’ will get.
Where is the benefit for Antiguans & Barbudans DOCUMENTED you fools?
I can’t wait for election to come to drive on ‘x’ in Maria Bird-Browne. I will be thinking of her husband all the way into the cubicle.
Register to vote my people. Let us get rid of Gaston Browne and his clowns.
Guy lets just admit that your eyes are wide shut on this issue. Look at the SEZ act from 2015 which controls the license which makes clear the purpose of SEZ
“AN ACT to set up a Special Economic Zone to promote and establish self-contained, industrial, commercial and financial corporate offices and business centres, with solid and good infrastructure, to facilitate public and private sector participation in a competitive and attractive environment for the promotion of economic development and the creation of jobs in Antigua and Barbuda”
In case you missed it:
“for the promotion of economic development and the creation of jobs in Antigua and Barbuda”
Well and good, but you have to enshrine in the agreement that Antigua will get jobs. How many Antiguans are employed by Yida? All people seen up there are Chinese.
Gaston said on his radio show that Yida is making blocks and windows. Are they exporting their products or selling them in the Antiguan market? Local Antiguans can make blocks and windows so why are they being displaced by a tax free economic zone? Antiguans don’t gain anything from these zones but they loose what should be theirs.
Wish people like Tenman would stop being lapdogs for this governments.
Yes TENMAN we know the objective of an SEZ. How many jobs have the YIDA SEZ brought to Antigua so far? Empty words do not cut it, there must be tangible benefits to show. SEZs are somewhat beneficial when they use local raw materials etc to produce goods for export. There must also be a legal requirement for local employment creation. In the absence of those the SEZs are a waste of time. We have the example of Jamaica where their touted SEZs brought very little benefit to the country. Of course with the magician Gaston and the ALP the streets of Antigua will be paved with gold from the economic benefits of the SEZS
TENMAN:How many jobs did they promised? My property in that area called Jennings is untouchable. If touched,it would be hell to pay,not a threat,a promise.
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