TALKING POINTS: Respect For Foreign Nationals, Sexual Harrassment, Flag Project, Financial Situation, Tourism, Government Budget and Theft Of School Equipment

Chief Minister Osbourne Fleming told local reporters at his weekly press conference on Wednesday that he thought he should stress the importance of tourism to Anguilla and the survival of its people. “In these turbulent times we are asking all residents and belongers to take note that like never before, we must be very cautious with this industry we have,” he stated. “To that end I am asking all of us to recognise that the season has started; we have to do all that is in our power to make our guests feel welcome. We need to control the activity of crime. We want to ensure that this tourism season is crime-free because this is all that we have.”

L-R: Chief Minister Osbourne Fleming, Hon. Victor Banks and Hon. Evans McNeil Rogers

Mr. Fleming said that despite all of the negative publicity, Anguilla would still survive as long as all persons recognised the importance of tourism and nurture it so that guests could enjoy themselves and the island would prosper.

Another matter he spoke about was on complaints the Government had been receiving regarding the treatment of foreign nationals by Anguillians and companies in Anguilla. “It must be stated that we must be aware of the fact these people who come to our shores contribute to the development of Anguilla,” Mr. Fleming said. “While a lot of people think I am hard on foreigners, that is not the case. I have always stressed the fact that we should respect the nationals from overseas and at the same time they must respect us. But we have been recently had a number of complaints that Anguillians and companies are taking advantage up to a point of a number of these nationals and we cannot tolerate that.
“The people who come to work with us are human beings and I believe that they must be respected, especially at the workplace. We also had numerous cases of sexual harassment meted out to these people by nationals of Anguilla. I am not in a position to bring any case before you but there have been cases brought to us as a Government. We know who some of the perpetrators are. We are using this media to advise all employers who harass or ill treat workers to stop. Just as I have said that if nationals from overseas come here and cannot behave themselves, they must leave, I take serious objection, not me, but by extension the Government, to the ill treatment of our foreign nationals and I repeat, it must stop.”

On another matter, the Chief Minister stated that the Government was actively ensuring that key positions in Anguilla were held by Anguillians. “We believe that we have a number of Anguillians who are fairly qualified for a number of jobs and we have been receiving applications for certain jobs that we are not going to support, because we have Anguillians who are qualified for them,” he emphasised. “If Anguillians are not qualified, then measures must be put in place to have them as understudy” personnel.

He noted that the economy in Anguilla was changing and that as a result the Government was revisiting the system of work permits and had decided to curtail as far as possible the issuing of such permits. “We are aware of a number of persons who are not working,” he went on. “These persons include Anguillians as well as persons from overseas. The Government’s policy is that if you are from overseas and you are not working, we are sorry. We cannot encourage people to stay on our shores who are not working. I believe, as the months go by, we will see a downturn in the number of jobs and that’s why we are curtailing work permits so as to ensure that we don’t have a lot of people in the country who are not working.”

Changing the subject, the Chief Minister said the Government was very concerned about the Flag project “because from what we are hearing and seeing, things have not changed since we spoke last.” He stated that it was being rumoured that Flag had filed for bankruptcy in the United States. He spoke to the main proprietor of the project on Tuesday and was told that it was not the case. “We are actively pursuing outstanding payments for Anguillian vendors. We were told that the outstanding amount of money due to vendors stands between five and six million US dollars,” Mr. Fleming reported. “We realise that this is a huge figure and when converted to EC currency, we are talking about sixteen million dollars.

“We know that a number of Anguillians have stressed themselves to work with this property and they need their money. Government will continue to do what is in our power to ensure that these creditors or vendors are compensated. To this end we have decided to have a discussion with the Anguillian vendors. We cannot set a date for that as yet because we must have some concrete statement when we get it from the people at Flag.” Mr. Fleming said that the Government had been advised to hold off on the matter as the developers were still in the process of accessing funding. “It is a sad situation especially in these turbulent times but, unlike in the United States where the Government is bailing out companies, Anguilla is not in a position to do that and we must continue our quest to ensure that the vendors are paid.”

On the matter relating to the Viceroy Project, the Chief Minister said that according to their schedule the developers, there will still be a soft opening [of a section of the property] in December. “What we are doing now is facilitating them to a large extent to provide them with permits to bring in people on a month-to-month basis to do the finishing work…and we hope that they will be able to live up to what their goals are.”

Mr. Fleming pointed out that the financial situation affecting the world was having serious effects on Anguilla, not just the Government but nearly every business place. “We call upon the people of Anguilla to be vigilant and careful, to ensure thriftiness and only to spend when absolutely necessary because we don’t know how long this cloud is going to last... and I am very concerned about the situation.”

Minister of Finance, Victor Banks, expressed the belief that the Government had succeeded in establishing the Anguilla Jazz Festival as an important part of the Anguillian experience and especially this year when the island suffered from Hurricane Omar and the financial situation. “It was a good event, letting people know that Anguilla was alive and open for business…,” he stated.

He said however that the Government was still concerned about the future of the tourism industry. He was pleased that Cap Juluca was still on schedule with its reopening on December 15 after extensive upgrading work.

Mr. Banks reported that generally tourist bookings were slower this year but he hoped that visitors, particularly from the United States, would continue to choose Anguilla as a vacation destination despite the situation with the economy there. He spoke about travel difficulties and likewise hoped that there would be improvements in this area as Anguilla continued its marketing activities.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Finance said the Government was progressing with its budget exercise. “We are trying to ensure that it will be a realistic budget,” he went on. “We are trying to cut back on the expenditure and we are also trying to raise as much revenue as we can. We do not anticipate at this time too many increases in the fiscal aspect of it [in the area of taxes]. We know that people will have to make a contribution, but we have been working more towards the efficiency of tax collection rather than the increasing of tax and we are trying to rationalise the cost of recovery areas which are so important.” He was of the view that Property Tax, which only amounted to 700,000 dollars, was well below the level at which it should be. He added that the recurrent budget was expected to be around 250 million dollars.

Minister of Social Development, Evans Rogers, spoke on a number of matters of much concern to his Ministry. He was particularly concerned about the number of burglaries on the island and the theft of computer equipment, tools and other equipment at classrooms, when the Government was trying to improve learning opportunities for students.

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