Just three days after Prime Minister Gaston Bronwe signed a US $15.8 million loan arrangement with Venezuelan bank, Banco Alba, it has now turned its attention further north as it seeks another US $100 million from a consortium of banks in the United States.
As for as the use of the funds, Cabinet spokesman Information Minster Melford Nicholas indicated that, “the main project would be the expansion of the telecommunications network.”
“Telecommunications,” he explained, “will drive a a lot more activity in the future… so we have already approved a project for APUA to role out to a fiber to the home network and that requires a significant degree of funding.”
Cabinet notes stated the other uses of the desired funding: “Resources raised will bring an end to an expensive loan that dates back to the previous administration; pay for upgrades to infrastructure at the V.C. Bird International Airport; and, provide some fiscal resources to the Treasury.”
The key question of how this additional funding would be repaid was answered saying, “any time we make investments, we expect them to pay back for themselves with increased economic activity.”
Nicholas went on to ask and then answer a question already on the minds of those in attendance at this morning’s post-Cabinet press briefing: “If the government takes on additional debt, is it going to affect the debt to GDP ratio?”
“It’s a sliding scale,” he said, answering his own question, “If the GDP increases and the debt increases, the ratios can remain the same.”