Anguilla and the rest of the world are poised at the back door of a fleeting year and at the threshold of a fast approaching one. For us and everybody else it is a time for reflection and hope. Looking at our own situation, the outgoing year has been a challenging one. Recovery from the impacts on our economy and financial position by world events, and perhaps by our own failings has been slow. The result has been a lessening of employment opportunities and a reduction of our purchasing power.

At the same time however, our people have had to keep in my mind that with funding not available from other sources, Anguilla was required to pay its own way. Providence was nevertheless on our side and we have survived although the situation has not changed.
As always, tourism continued to be the only real engine which drove our economy during the year, but we have seen how fickle the industry is. The violent incidents in the United States in September 2001 and the fear of travel still affected our tourist numbers during the early months of 2002 and there have been the usual dropping off in the summer; but it could have been worse. There is a need for all of us in Anguilla to realise that if we are to continue to attract tourists to our shores, our people must maintain their good name as hospitable and law-abiding citizens in an island of low or even non-existent crime. We must stamp out serious crimes like the murder earlier this year which we swiftly addressed and the robberies at business places which we have recently heard about.

Despite our economic situation, the construction industry remained vibrant during the year with much activity in the private sector. This has kept many of our skilled as well as unskilled workmen employed. The public sector has not been so active with little or no building works in hand. A number of agreements were however put in place which will hopefully bear fruit in the New Year. These include the much-talked about hotel and golf course development and road construction projects and others still in the pipeline. We have now been told in the Budget Address that the Airport Project is to be started in the coming year to meet the demands for larger aircraft and the provision of other better facilities. We hope so.
A big issue which emerged during the year was the need for constitutional and electoral reform. The process towards this commenced with a series of forum discussions which are ongoing, but which have not attracted the attendance of many of those whose voices for change were the loudest. However, the reform must come about as Anguilla will need to solidify its constitutional, political, social and economic position in the 21st Century.

Another matter is the setting up of a Health Authority to improve the delivery of health care services for our people. We can only hope that success will come our way in every area of endeavour in the coming year as we extend season’s greetings to all.

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