The National Democratic Party (NDP) is proposing borrowing $221.7M in loans to assist with the recovery drive in the Virgin Islands over the next five years. Photo: VINO

Government's proposed breakdown of the $721M needed for recovery efforts over the next five years. Photo: VINO

However, the National Democratic Party (NDP) Government, which recently got approval in the House of Assembly to approach the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) to borrow a sum not exceeding $65,291,000, said in a proposed recovery and development plan that roughly $721M will be needed to restore the territory over the next five years.

According to a draft document/plan, which is currently a key document on the desk of Premier and Minister of Finance, Dr The Honourable D. Orlando Smith, it is suggested that the $721M will be financed by a combination of grants, loans, insurance, statutory borrowings, government spending, private sector partnerships, and support from Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs).

The breakdown

According to the breakdown, government plans to pull from its coffers $58.6M and to borrow $221.7M for the planned recovery drive.

$56.7 million is earmarked to be financed through insurance, and government is seeking another $52.7 million in grants. The government is targeting the Private sector, NGOs, and statutory bodies to produce a combined total of $331.3M.

Available options to increase revenue, improve public sector efficiency and reduce recurrent expenditure will also be explored, according to the draft report.

The main targeted areas are business and economy- $262,950,000; governance- $79,669,920; infrastructure- $216,210,000; human and social services- $136,493,600 and natural resources and climate change- $25,981,000.

Meanwhile, Government has been criticised for not including the people in the initial stages of the recovery plan and is now seeking to get the public's input.

This caused Opposition Leader to comment that the move is like 'putting the cart before the horse'.