Montserrat’s leader of government business, Premier, the Honourable Reuben T. Meade has reiterated the need for internal investments to drive economic development on island.
Premier Meade was at the time discussing the economic state of the island with former Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) president Hygenius “Gene” Leon, another economist, on the “what’s on your mind” radio programme.
Mr Meade used the introduction of the government’s micro business finance scheme as an example where a $2-million dollar pot of money allocated to the scheme was fully utilized.
He gave the breakdown of the funds assigned as Fisheries – $549,000
Agriculture/farming – $451,000
Hospitality and tourism – $304,000
Consultancy professional services – $186,000 Retail and distribution – $147,000
Other – $120,000
Agri-processing – $120,000
Construction and trade – $50,000
Information technology -$50,000
Health and wellness – 13,000
Printing, media and publishing – $9,500
Premier Meade stated that the Government was able to secure an additional $2,000,000.
“Hence my meeting at the ECCB. I was able to convince them that we needed more money. And I was in a position to obtain $2.1 million, of which $2,000,000, approximately 1.9 will go into the micro and small business scheme or the small business loan scheme.
Mr. Meade said $100,000 will go to the Ministry of Agriculture for development work there.
“The whole idea here is we put money into the economy, we put money into small businesses and farming activities. And through proper monitoring, the collection of data, we would be in a position to look at development in a broader perspective, Premier Meade explains.
Meantime, Mr Leon praised the effort of the government as one of the pivotal programmes that one should not only support but expand going forward.
He shared that to be able to undertake any meaningful investments and growth, one needs to be able to have not just adequate but affordable finance.