Restructuring Grenada well underway, says Prime Minister

by Ivan Cairo
Caribbean Net News Suriname Correspondent

Friday, February 18, 2005

PARAMARIBO, Suriname: The restructuring of Grenada is well underway, said Prime Minister Keith Mitchell. Right now the administration is putting in resources to re-develop the agricultural sector. 

When Hurricane Ivan struck Grenada and other nations in the Caribbean September last year, almost 90 percent of the buildings on the islands were seriously damaged or destroyed. 

The Prime Minister mentioned in a press meeting on Wednesday that the government is bringing in materials to cover and repair the houses and other buildings in the hardest hit places. “We have also started some low income houses in villages particularly in the areas St Davis and St Georges where Ivan hit hardest”, Mitchell said. 

The Venezuelan government has promised over hundred homes and work has already been started. 

China also offered to build 2,000 new homes. Next week a team of technicians and engineers from a Chinese company will arrive in Grenada to evaluate preparations for the building of a new national stadium. The same company will oversee the construction of the 2,000 low income homes. 

There also is a project where the administration is working together with the financial sector to provide loans at a lower interest rate for people to reconstruct their homes. The government is also providing a maximum of 5,000 dollars for “low income people” to repair damaged roofs and homes. 

High level research work was done Prime Minister Mitchell said. “We have a listing of the level of damage suffered by individual persons in each community,” Mitchell noted further. On community level the people are choosing their own committees to coordinate reconstruction activities. The mood of the people in general is changed and very upbeat, the Prime Minister said.

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