by Emmanuel H. Joseph
Government Information Service
Dominica’s Prime Minister, Hon. Roosevelt Skerrit has returned home following a special ALBA meeting in Venezuela, February 3-4, 2009. At that meeting, leaders signed on to two important agreements on food security, pledging to contribute a total of $49 million US dollars (USD$49 000 000.00) to boost food production in the Caribbean.
The initial investment is to be drawn from the $100 million US dollars (USD$100 000 000.00) food security fund that ALBA member nations created during the height of the world food crisis last in April of 2008. The Prime Minister explained, in an interview with the Government Information Service, that Dominica stands to benefit from the agreement and is already in the process of putting the necessary machinery in place to derive the benefits.
Prime Minister of Dominica,
Hon. Roosevelt Skerrit
“Dominica expects to benefit from the forty-nine million US dollars (USD$49 000 000.00) that was placed in a special account when the agreement was signed. It is our intention to submit projects for consideration by the ALBA grouping to have projects implemented in Dominica. It could be projects between Dominica and Venezuela or Dominica and Cuba in Dominica itself. It is a matter of the Ministry of Agriculture, and we have already started the process to look at the various projects and programmes for food production, food security which we would like to implement under this food agreement.”
Prime Minister Skerrit explained why he believes that the agreement is an important one for Dominica.
“It is a very important agreement because agriculture still remains an important pillar in our economic development. Therefore, whatever investment we can get to improve on the technology, to improve on production and by so doing, reduce on our food import bill allowing us to have more of our money remain in our country for the benefit of our people, certainly, that can spur activity in many other areas. Of course, that would also increase our exports of fresh agricultural produce to neighbouring countries and beyond.”
As an investment plan, the ALBA Nations signed agreements to form mixed enterprises that will promote technological cooperation and training, invest in rural infrastructure, and integrate regional food distribution. Member nations also decided to place the food security fund under the management of the ALBA bank. |
