KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent – St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister, Dr. Denzel Douglas says that the EC$400 million Buccament Bay Resort is a sign of investor confidence in this country.
Douglas’ comments on Tuesday came at the end of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Authority meeting at the resort.
He was speaking after Vincentian Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves told a post-meeting press conference that Douglas had spoken highly or the resort during lunch on Monday.
“Yesterday at lunch Denzel said to me ‘But why you don’t make more about this place down here man, this Buccama place. It’s a fantastic facility, in these times when people come and invest like this, it is a mark of confidence.’ I want to leave the last work to Denzel so he can speak to this issue,” said Gonsalves, who described Douglas as “someone who knows about confidence”.
Douglas commended the government and the OECS Secretariat “for the very wonderful arrangements that have been made to accommodate us here at this very important meeting and to have selected a facilitated like this, which I had never heard of before.”
“And this has been the sentiment expressed by all of my colleague heads of government who have been here for the meeting, that it is a very wonderful resort that has been established, which is being further developed and established,” Douglas, who visited St. Vincent last summer to attend the ground-breaking ceremony for the terminal building at the Argyle International Airport told reporters.
“And as he (Gonsalves) said, and as I said yesterday, it speaks to the confidence that investors are having in this government and in the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, especially at this time when it is so very difficult to mobilise capital for … development in particular.
“I think this speaks very well of not only for the government and people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines but for the OECS on a whole. And I would really like to commend the people and the government for the beautiful development that is taking place here,” the OECS’ longest-serving head of government said.
The Buccament Bay Resort, also called “Buccama”, has received some negative press since its inception, especially since farmers were uprooted from the agricultural lands there to make way for the tourism development.
Recently, some construction workers at the facility have complained about the non-payment of wages, even as at least three fires have broken out there over the past several weeks.