Montserrat and the UK Government Began Budget Talks on Monday

The United Kingdom mounts a financial aid mission to Montserrat this week.

The mission marks the start of negotiations for the 2019/2020 budget.

Premier the Honourable Donaldson Romeo will lead the discussions for Montserrat, with support from government ministers, the Honourable Financial Secretary and senior government officials.

The team from the Department for International Development will include economic advisor Laurin Janes, and Moira Marshal, Dfid Resident Representative.

Other key figures are Senior Social Development Advisor Kirsty Mason, Governance Advisor Richard Jones, Infrastructure Advisor Iftikar Ahmed, and Health Advisor Karen Zamboni.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office will be represented by Aarath Shah, the FCO’s Senior Advisor/Economics and Financial Services.

Apart from agreeing to a figure for the budget the high priority areas are access, infrastructure, and capacity building.

The discussions will also focus on taxation policy, maintenance strategy, disaster preparedness, safeguarding issues and the economic growth strategy.

The government of Montserrat is three quarters through the current budget of 167.8 million dollars.