Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Dr. the Right Honourable Keith Mitchell, says Grenada’s recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will depend to some extent on the level of activity generated by the Ministry of Infrastructure Development, Transport and Implementation.
At a meeting last Friday with top officials of that ministry, Dr. Mitchell said, “Economic activity in the country depends heavily on construction and implementing projects under the Public Sector Investment Programme. In the absence of the traditional level of activity by key GDP contributors, Tourism and St. George’s University, the key opportunities for economic activity in the short to medium term, will therefore be in construction, in both the public and private sectors.”
The Prime Minister acknowledged the efforts being made by the Ministry to improve the rate of implementation and welcomed news that all strategic one-off projects are on schedule. He urged the incoming Minister for Infrastructure Development, Senator the Honourable Norland Cox to ensure that much focus is placed on this area.
Dr. Mitchell said, “There is a tendency for things to become clogged up in the bureaucratic system. There must be a greater level of aggression as it relates to project implementation. Getting projects moving means putting people to work and in this particular climate, we must seek to generate economic activity as much as possible.”
The Prime Minister also acknowledged the need for more engineers and other technical support staff and he referenced the Canada Resilience Facility, through which Grenada can seek support for staffing in technical areas such as engineering and energy.
Minister Cox who has worked alongside this ministry on the implementation of various projects within his current portfolio, cited project management and resource allocation as two additional areas of focus that are critical to the ministry’s overall performance.
With respect to transport, the Prime Minister welcomed the ministry’s efforts to develop a better rapport with stakeholders in the sector. The ministry has also already started a series of engagements with stakeholders including bus owners and drivers, taxi drivers and truckers.
The series of ministry meetings continue this week, with the Prime Minister scheduled to meet officials from the Ministry of Sports, Culture and the Arts, Fisheries and Cooperatives; the Ministry of Tourism, Civil Aviation, Climate Resilience and the Environment and the Ministry of Finance, Economic Development, Physical Development, Public Utilities and Energy.
