Bishop John I. Cline ‘angered & frustrated’ by Govt’s foreign bias
Cline, who is also Chairman of the BVI Health Services Authority (BVIHSA), was speaking on Saturday night March 6, 2016 during the television talk show ‘Cross Talk’ on CBN Television Channel 51.
“The direction that I see happening is that they just want to ship it off to foreign countries to a foreign company and I am not in favour of that,” he said.
“When leadership behaves like that, like we cannot do anything as BVIslanders and everything has to be given to a foreign company, it really frustrates me...it angers me... it makes me question who the heck we got leading us,” a clearly livid Cline said.
“Don’t they see the benefit of helping local companies to grow?” he asked.
Cline is of the view that locals can own stakes in the renewable energy sector, citing one example.
He said he does not believe the partnership is there between government and the local "indigenous" private sector.
“I am not saying to give everything to the local companies. If they can’t do the job they can’t do the job. But I always go back to H. Lavity Stoutt because we saw leadership that preserved the BVI because of BVI ownership,” he said.
According to Cline, H. Lavity Stoutt demanded that there be at least 50 percent ownership in an entity that was up for sale.
“That is how CCT became locally owned but what happened? He (H. Lavity Stoutt) is now dead and local investment is on life support now because the rights were given to foreign companies to dominate with (their) deep pockets,” said Bishop Cline.
Locals no longer in control
Cline further said that locals are no longer in control of many industries such as tourism, financial services and telecommunications.
He, however, made it clear that he was not against foreign investment as he does not believe any country could survive without such investment.
Cline said he appreciates the importance of local companies building their capacity by partnering with overseas companies with a view to sharing and transferring expertise, noting that this is something he has done in his own business.
“I partner with foreign companies. We obviously don’t have all the expertise on island, so I make sure that Infinite Solutions is partnering with companies like IBM, HP and Lenovo so I could get the proper training for my technicians so I can get a quality product. I’ve done that for many years,” said Cline.
Over the past years especially during the National Democratic Party (NDP) administration, critics have lashed out at the penchant of the government to overly rely on overseas expertise when it is felt that local professionals could provide the same services and skills for a fraction of what the government would have to shell out in consultancy fees to a foreign company.
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36 Responses to “Bishop John I. Cline ‘angered & frustrated’ by Govt’s foreign bias ”
Remember one minister said to hell with locals we can no longer protect them via the laws. When you make your bed you lie in it BAM
@ wize up: even with shipping and me having to walk to pick up the package it was far profitable to buy it off island.... locally at the so........ company each 64gb jump drive is 45.00 USD....online the same 64gb jump drive is 12.00USD each(12X3)...do the maths
You want to talk about a con. Talk about NHI... But oh, I forgot, you are an NDP, so you won't talk that... Have w good day
"When leadership behaves like that, like we cannot do anything as BVIslanders and everything has to be given to a foreign company, it really frustrates me...it angers me... it makes me question who the heck we got leading us,” a clearly livid Cline said.
“Don’t they see the benefit of helping local companies to grow?” he asked."
THIS IS BIGGER THAN YOU CLINE. SEIZE THE TIME. YOU NEST WITH THIS GANG SO YOU HAVE TO DEAL WITH THE KARMA.
Hey John, Karma is a bithc!