Local News

PM promises Grenville vendors will be assisted

St. George’s, June 30, 2010 – Prime Minister Hon. Tillman Thomas has reiterated a government promise to assist merchants who suffered losses in a fire that destroyed the Grenville Vendors’ Market on Sunday.

“We are going to assist wherever we could to help them get back on their feet to ensure that they can continue their business activities,’’ the Prime Minister said in a Wednesday morning interview with broadcaster, Anthony Jericho Greenidge.

Since the fire, the site has been visited by members of government and meetings held with officials such as Finance Minister Nazim Burke; Social Development Minister Sylvester Quarless; Sports and Youth
Empowerment Minister Patrick Simmons; and Junior Minister of Housing, Lands and Community Development, Senator Glen Noel.

“We are on top of the situation,’’ Prime Minister Thomas said. “I sympathise with the people; I’m in solidarity with them. We’ll do what we could to see how we could assist in finding some place for them to continue their activities.’’

In the wide-ranging interview, the Prime Minister discussed both the achievements of his government and the upcoming annual convention of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), which he heads as party leader.

The convention will be held July 11, starting with a closed-door delegates’ morning session at the St. Andrew’s Anglican Secondary School.

Mr. Thomas said delegates will review the operations of the NDC, looking at its strengths and weaknesses, in the two years since it has formed the government of Grenada.

Officers will also be elected to some positions “to ensure that we could forge ahead to get the party on a more active footing,’’ he said. “We need to do more fundraising. This is a very important aspect of the democratic process. You have to have funds to get things going and to get competent people to assist in the development of the party as a vibrant organ in the democratic process.’’

The afternoon session of the NDC convention will take the form of a mass rally at Carlton Junction to be addressed by Dr. Kenny Anthony, former St. Lucia Prime Minister and leader of the opposition St. Lucia
Labour Party.

Hon. Thomas said his NDC administration has been able to “maintain fiscal discipline, notwithstanding the global economic,’’ pointing to achievements in areas such as education and skills training for youth,
agriculture, and the potential for exploration and exploitation of the nation’s marine resources with the recent signing of the maritime agreement with Trinidad and Tobago.

“I believe we’ve laid a good foundation,’’ said the Prime Minister, who also highlighted ongoing projects in fisheries, infrastructure development and agro-processing.

“Right now, the Grenada Cocoa Association is involved in establishing a processing plant in Diamond in St. Mark,’’ he said. “I visited the site two weeks ago and things are progressing fairly well there. They’re going to process cocoa and export it to London.’’

Government recently announced that it was not yet ready to proceed with a plan for the development of the Town of St. George that was proposed by Zublin Grenada Ltd. The proposal included construction of several new facilities, as well the building of a casino.

Prime Minister Thomas said the proposal was not “properly balanced,’’ adding the “public part of the financing of the project’’ was a “weakness.’’

“There are lots of aspects of the projects to be looked at,’’ Hon. Thomas said.

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