The launch of the 1000 Jobs in 1000 Days initiative, scheduled for today, May 14, 2019, has been postponed, according to a notice on the Facebook page ‘Premier’s Special Projects’. Photo: Facebook

On May 7, 2019 Premier and Minister of Finance Honourable Andrew A. Fahie (R1) had said business owners were responding favourably to the 1000 Jobs in 1000 Days employment initiative. Photo: Facebook

The launch was scheduled for 3:00pm during a press conference at the Premier’s Office and was to be live streamed.

“We regret to inform you that today’s press conference and live stream will be postponed. We will share a new date and time soonest,” a statement on the Facebook page ‘Premier’s Special Projects’ read.

No reasons were given for the postponement.

“We apologise for any inconvenience caused, but we encourage you to remain hopeful as delaying doesn’t mean denied and we will return with plans to put many of you to work,” according to the notice posted.

On May 7, 2019 Premier and Minister of Finance Honourable Andrew A. Fahie (R1) had said business owners were responding favourably to the employment initiative.

“We already have businesses who have signed on and ready to hire Belongers in those positions with training, and we will achieve that goal,” Premier Fahie said during a press conference to update the public on the Government’s Residency and Belonger Regularisation ‘fast track initiative’.

Background

The 1000 jobs in 1000 days is a manifesto promise made by the Virgin Islands Party (VIP) prior to the General Elections on February 25, 2019.

The VIP boss on February 19, 2019 had said he envisaged most of the jobs would be available in the tourism sector, and through encouraging and promoting investments, expanding existing service, as well as rebuilding the Territory’s infrastructure, which would include a multi-million dollar project to repair the Territory’s sewerage systems.

“We can confidently declare today that a VIP government of which I will be honoured to lead, will guarantee the creation of a minimum 1,000 jobs in 1,000 days. Our projection of 1,000 jobs is a conservative estimate – that’s why we say a minimum – because we are quite excited and optimistic that through our bold policy approaches and our encouragement of small business development, we can achieve much more than this,” Hon Fahie had said.