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Parliament has approved a resolution for a 67 million-dollar loan from the World Bank for Dominica\u2019s Covid-19 response and recovery.<\/p>\n
The motion was tabled in Parliament on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cI believe that the World Bank and the IMF [International Monetary Fund] with their changes they have made within those institutions have demonstrated their understanding in large measure of the challenges of small island developing states like Dominica,\u201d Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said. \u201cAnd the financing mechanism that they have in place is a reflection of their understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n
Skerrit continued, \u201cAnd I could say to the people of Dominica that we have cultivated as a government and as a country an extra-ordinary cordial relationship with the World Bank and its staff and the leadership of the bank.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to him, the government is developing with the World Bank a case study on how the World Bank can help a developing country overcome its challenges, \u201cbut I believe overall, we can say that they are very responsive and understanding with regards to their needs of small island developing states like Dominica, especially having the face this external shock of this Pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Prime Minister also spoke on behalf of countries like Antigua & Barbuda and the unnecessary classification which he believes is preventing that country from accessing such funds.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said to them many times that they have to review the classification and in a time when a country like Antigua is facing this huge external shock, to tell me that the international financial institutions are not coming to the aid of Antigua & Barbuda is shameful and unacceptable,\u201d Skerrit remarked.<\/p>\n
The Prime Minister said in times like these, the rules must be relaxed.<\/p>\n
He said he believes that what Antigua & Barbuda is confronting now is not the doing of the Government and people of Antigua & Barbuda, it is an external shock that all of us are experiencing and is of the view that international financial institutions should be running to the aid of Antigua & Barbuda and all of the developing countries that have graduated to middle income country status.<\/p>\n
Minister for Public Works and the Digital Economy, Senator Cassanni Laville, in commending the resolution to the House for approval, said this first operation will address two pillars. The first entails saving lives, protecting livelihoods and preserving jobs while the second pillar has to do with the strengthening of fiscal policies, public financial management and debt transparency for resilient recovery.<\/p>\n
He said the monies will be borrowed at an interest rate of 0.75% to 1.5 % per annum with a commitment charge of half of 1 % per annum.<\/p>\n
Repayment will be done in 60 semi-annual installments commencing May 15th 2031 with a grace period of 10 years and maturity of 40 years.<\/p>\n
The minister expressed gratitude to all the institutions that have contributed to Dominica, including the World Bank and the Citizenship By Investment (CBI) Program, IMF and OPEC fund.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Parliament has approved a resolution for a 67 million-dollar loan from the World Bank for Dominica\u2019s Covid-19 response and recovery. The motion was tabled in Parliament on Monday. \u00a0\u201cI believe that the World Bank and the IMF [International Monetary Fund]…","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":266904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","footnotes":""},"categories":[265,282,17,235,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-266899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-covid-19","category-covid-19-news","category-health","category-homepage-carousel","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n