Cruise ship pier project is not a loan – Vanterpool
One very vocal resident and former political candidate for the 9th district, Lorie Rymer, went as far as to describe the $75 million as a loan which the Minister responsible for the project has vehemently defended.
On the television talk show BVI Forum aired on CBN Channel 51 on Saturday evening July 14, 2012, Rymer along with Minister for Communications and Works Hon. Mark Vanterpool were guests of host Edmund Maduro where the topic of the development took centre stage.
Rymer said while some are saying it is not a loan, in his view, it is a loan. “A loan means the money is not given to you and it has to be paid back with interest, that makes it a loan, and there are different types of loans.”
But according to Hon. Vanterpool, the $75 million is not a loan but an investment with the investors taking on “certain risks and expecting certain returns”.
“An investment is not a loan…the investors have invested their money at risk over the 15 years with us not guaranteeing anything, if anything goes wrong … let us make an assumption, let’s say Cuba becomes a hot spot and cruise ships are allowed to go to Cuba as they wish then it might threaten what they invested here in the cruise ship business and the money they invested here may become a risk, I don’t know what I hope not … that’s their risk,” Hon. Vanterpool explained.
Regarding concerns about the length of time for the lease of 48 years, he said to him it was also too long thus he negotiated to have buy out options at intervals.
Both Maduro and Rymer had contend that the VI should have a 51 percent or majority share in the project. To this Hon. Vanterpool said he supports that locals should have as much ownership as possible but said he wasn’t sure that he can make that mandatory. He also made it clear that while it’s a 50/50 public/private partnership, the BVI Ports Authority has a dominant say in the project.
In response to a caller who was seeking clarity on the 50/50 deal between the investors and Government, Vanterpool explained that, “the leases that will be on the Port side, the money will be going to the other partners for the first 15 years and other than that it will be split 50/50...The idea here is the investors wish to recoup their money in the 15 years and then after that it will be split 50/50."
Sovereignty to outside influence?
Another point raised by Rymer is the question of sovereignty and whether or not the VI is going to turn over the great measure of sovereignty to outside influences.
Rymer said there are pansy schemes and went on to state that the VI must be very careful.
“We must be very careful, we have pansy schemes. We know what happen to Antigua, a king owned and ruled most of Antigua but we now know what has happen to him and he has been in prison for 108 years and asset he created in Antigua will be tied up for the next 15 to 20 years,” Rymer stated, speaking of billionaire Alan Stanford and his investment in that island.
Tortola Ports Partners Ltd, United Infrastructure Group, Cashmen are the partners that will be working along with the Virgin Islands Government, to realise the $75 million cruise pier project where $25M will be earmarked for pier and excursion dock; $25M is allocated for land side development and $25M for community investment. Included in the development will be the Tortola Pier Park which will include boutiques, arts and crafts, and water front entertainment.
The expansion of the pier is expected to be completed by December 2012 while further development of the land side and improvements to Road Town will be pursued over the next three years.
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