FIVE ISLANDS, Antigua and Barbuda…..Prime Minister the Hon. Gaston Browne has praised local businessman and philanthropist, Ambassador Calvin Ayre for making a significant contribution towards the socio-economic development of Antigua and Barbuda.
Prime Minister Browne made the comment while delivering the feature address to launch the University of the West Indies, Five Islands Campus and the Calvin Ayre Foundation 75 Financial Care project which offers over 200 scholarships to students of the campus over a two-year period. The project is valued at EC $540, 000.
“For his contributions to the development of Antigua and Barbuda we say thank you and we are eternally pleased. I say to Ambassador Calvin Ayre, sincere thank you. An unapologetic thank you, for your commitment to this country and certainly to the region. Your contributions have made a difference, especially your economic contributions.
Today, Ambassador Calvin Ayre is easily the single largest private sector developer on the island, “ said Prime Minister Browne referring to the businessman’s development of a business complex, Canada Place at over $40 million dollars, the ongoing construction of a retreat centre at a cost of $40 million US dollars and his plan to construct, later this year a luxury resort and residences – a Nikki Beach project.
“Ambassador Ayre, evidently has shown a significant amount of commitment to the people of this country and he should be celebrated. I want to encourage all Antiguans and Barbudans to embrace him. He is a citizen and I want to emphasize the point that he has been a good citizen and a most productive citizen in terms of his investments,” said PM Browne.
Prime Minister Browne also encouraged other members of the business community to contribute to community development and worthwhile projects; making reference to the Apostle Paul’s three Christian principles of faith, hope and charity.
“We all know that the best of them is charity. And they say that charity is the best form of love. Ambassador Ayre is showing his love for the people of Antigua and Barbuda in a very tangible way by making these significant contributions, these significant gifts. In fact, I would say that he is also the single largest philanthropist. We are eternally grateful. And by giving, that is the way in which you demonstrate love for people.
I am encouraging other businessmen and other professionals in this country to follow the lead of Ambassador Ayre by giving not only to the University of the West Indies Five Islands Campus, but generally to the society. For us to become more giving and more empathetic people. There are many things that we can volunteer to do, but unfortunately, we do not have a strong culture of volunteering, and I’m hoping that this will change as we look at the contributions of people like Ambassador Calvin Ayre,” said Prime Minister Browne.
Prime Minister Browne also stated that as a small nation with less than 100,000 people, we must make the best of our human resources and continue to invest in people so that they can compete with the best in the world.
He noted that his government is determined to continue to invest in the development of its people, not only in academic education, but also in vocational and technical education.
“My government agrees with Principal Williams of the Five Islands Campus that there is a need for us to assist individuals in the workforce to increase or improve their job proficiency. And that is certainly an area that we welcome as we continue to expand the university’s lifelong learning programmes.
I am especially concerned about proficiency within the public sector, and we have held private discussions with Professor Williams to help us to provide training for public servants, perhaps on the university’s programme so that we could increase job proficiency. This contribution by Ambassador Ayre will assist in this regard,” he said.
He pointed out that his government is hoping that the programme can commence soon and fully institutionalized in an effort to increase productivity within the public sector. He said that this is his government’s response to calls for retrenchment in the public service.
“We do not believe that retrenchment is a solution. I believe increasing productivity is a solution. That is why we have asked the university to partner with our administration, to continue to develop our public servants and to provide training for the public and private sectors as we seek to increase national productivity.”
The country’s leader concluded his remarks by calling on the nation’s people to come together in support of the University of the West Indies Five Islands Campus, which he said has emerged as the most significant institution that has been established by any administration in Antigua and Barbuda.
“UWI at the end of the day will be the fulcrum of our development, the fulcrum of our advancement. It is important for all Antiguans and Barbudans to buy into the vision of UWI Five Islands and continue to support its development by making significant contributions or even modest ones,” he said.
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Easy to do when the government gives you stuff for free. He didn’t do this for nothing. Gaston to get another kick back. Lol. It’s good that some students will benefit though.
This is total BS. Where is his empathy and philanthropy when he was allowed by Gaston to force the “Poor People” off the beach in front of Castaway to build his Nikki beach project.
This person is referred to as a philanthropist rather a “North American Pariah” is working towards his colonial Honour of knighthood. This person is no philanthropist He is a pariah.
We the people who encounter him from time to time knows he is an arrogant piece of Sh*t
A little hand out here and there, after he has denied “poor People” a living don’t make this person a philanthropist. I say he is nothing more than a pariah.
This man has been allowed to buy up most of Jolly Harbour for pennies. With GB OK. Castaways, half of Jolly Beach Resort, Tranquility Bay timeshare, all the land that Jolly Beach & Marina sits on, many villas in JH, some owned by timeshare members who get zero for there lifetime investment. Sugar Ridge and the entire hill side it sits on. Add that to the rest of his island assets. He isn’t doing all his good will for nothing. Just saying….
Mr. Ayres has found his paradise…..
I don’t know anything concerning Mr. Ayre or his motives, but I agree with the PM that this was a good gesture and that other business persons should contribute to various educational institutions and scholarships so that every motivated student can find an interesting, productive anf fulfilling occupation to help themselves and their families, and make a positive contribution to national development.
The public sector functioned fine during the pandemic with remote work and flexible hours for employees. Too often people believe that workers need to be chained to their desks or have their time micromanaged to be effective. 100% productivity would not be good either because that would leave no time, resources
or personnel to rise to the occasion in emergency events. No, the real problem with public sector work includes poor systems designs that do not adequately shift workers around to meet demand e.g. IT persons can temporarily be added to teams to speed up implementation of new services in different Departments, maintenance workers can be shifted at specific times of year for major upkeep work at different locations, affecting productivity of all workers. Better systems for dialogue between supervisors and workers are needed. Finally, people promoted to management need training in management to better manage resources, people and infrastructure.
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