NDP shows hostility to Digicel & Biwater
The statement, which was sent to selective media houses and excluded Virgin Islands News Online, was in response to Hon Fraser who spoke on January 7, 2015 on his party’s radio show “Let’s Talk” about the Cruise Pier Development investment scheme and warned investors in the programme to be aware that no one knows who will win the next elections.
The statement, dropped off to our news room this morning by our traditional sources in the senior leadership of the NDP, admitted that Hon Fraser is “a potential Premier of the Virgin Islands”.
In trying to justify the investment in what many Opposition members described as a ponzi scheme, the statement claims that “the Special Purpose Company Tortola Pier Park Limited has been created by, and is a subsidiary of the British Virgin Islands Ports Authority to facilitate this investment. This company is expected to be self-sufficient”.
The statement went on to say, “however, it also has the full financial support of the Ports Authority, the Government of the Virgin Islands…”, in addition “this Special Purpose Vehicle is capable of meeting all of its obligations to the investors in the Pier Park development.”
Disdain for Digicel & Biwater
It seems like every chance that the NDP has it takes a swipe at two private sector giant companies- international water and sewerage conglomerate Biwater, who they promised during the 2011 election campaign to chase out of the Virgin Islands; and Digicel who has provided up to 35 jobs and millions of dollars in local sponsorship to charities, schools, sports and youth organisations.
The statement asserted that with Biwater on board to bring better rates, a new sewerage system and a 24-hour supply of potable water, it has resulted in the alleged “destruction of the investment of hundreds of Virgin Islanders”.
The reckless statement, seen as hostile to foreign investments, did not stop there but lashed out at Digicel (BVI) Ltd., a company that has leveled the telecommunications playing field and has given customers better rates and more options. It also scoffs at Hon Fraser for liberalising the sector because they claimed the Virgin Islands has “one of the smallest telecommunications markets in the world.”
After three years of saying that the VIP did nothing for the country and they (NDP) did everything after they were elected in 2011, the statement went on to shower praise on the former Premier and Chairman of the Virgin Islands Party by saying “local and international investors took comfort in the eloquently spoken words of the Leader of the Opposition Honourable Ralph T. O’Neal OBE at the dedication ceremony of the new Peebles Hospital that government is a continuum…”
The same former Premier O’Neal who they are now praising said on the same radio show on January 7, 2015 that the opposition supports the Ports Development Project. However, the NDP still used the statement to claim that, “instead of working together, giving ideas and making suggestions to guarantee the success of such a vitally important national project, every attempt is being made to taint it and stop its success.”
Many critics of the NDP have accused them of trying to pick winners and losers in the private sector because of their alleged conflict of interest. The NDP continue to say they have freed themselves of all potential conflict of interests, however, the Registrar of Interest Mrs Victoreen Romney-Varlack complained that legislators refused to register such interest.
She did not name the Members of the House of Assembly (HoA) refusing to cooperate while testifying before the HoA last year to examine the Draft Estimates for the year 2015.
Both NDP and VIP party leaders could not be reached for comments as of publication time.
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39 Responses to “NDP shows hostility to Digicel & Biwater”
We all know who set out to kill CBW, Ocean Conversion, BVI Investment Club, and many more.
Please check the turnover rate at Digicel of those same 35 employees and the supposing quote of millions they donated versus the millions they have profited from being here in the BVI .
All that is tip of the ice berg on how government has been running for decades, with laws for some but not others.
What kinda reputation a man like M*W could have left editing this silly statement? But funny how he sounds just like all the Ponzi Schemers of the past promising good returns