Tonight, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit in an address to the nation announced the first part of Dominica’s economic recovery plan:
1. We will stabilize and support demand in the economy. The Government will try
wherever possible to maintain the previous year’s level of government procurement,
employment, wages, and routine operations.
2. Insurance of property in Dominica exceeds 100% of our annual GDP. Not all insured
properties are totally destroyed thankfully, but we expect substantial insurance payouts to
be made over the next few months. We will work with local and international insurance
companies and banks to expedite the arrival of loss assessors and the flow of insurance
payouts at lower transaction fees.
3. We will accelerate the full re-opening of all ports and ease the flow of goods through
ports.
4. We are working with our development partners to bring in the necessary equipment
required to take our clearing and cleaning efforts to the next level. Heavy clearing machines
are being loaded on to boats to travel to Dominica as we speak.
5. We will waive taxes and duties on the importation of all food and construction
materials for six months.
6. This is a time of great national effort and personal sacrifice. We will not tolerate anyone
taking unfair advantage of the situation. We will put in place a consumer watch dog in
charge of ensuring there is no profiteering and price gouging.
7. We expect businesses, banks and credit unions to expand their services as quickly as
possible to help normalize the situation.
8. We will sit down with lending institutions to see to what extent they can extend a
period of forbearance for their borrowers.
9. We will enforce and if necessary update building codes to ensure that all new
construction complies with these codes. We all know the consequences of not doing so.
10. The process of repair and rebuilding will take time but for many people their current
housing situation is difficult beyond belief and so in the mean-time we will be bringing
substantial quantities of roofing and temporary shelter.
11. We will facilitate the Social Security Fund offering a voluntary advance of up to $1,000
on non-contributory pension payments. There should be no long-run costs of this measure,
but the Government will indemnify the Fund of any costs of doing so.
12. We shall also offer voluntary advances on government salaries of up to $2,000 to help
the rehabilitation of homes.
Click the link below to listen to the PM’s Full address.
Audio recording of Prime Minister Skerrit’s address to the nation (Oct. 6, 2017): http://bit.ly/2fYEduQ
