Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell, on Wednesday, said he is hoping diplomacy will prevail and bring an end to the ongoing global disputes, including the war in the Middle East involving the United States, Israel and Iran.
“We believe in diplomacy. We certainly believe that many countries around the world believe in diplomacy,” Mitchell told a news conference, telling reporters he is hoping that greater diplomatic efforts can be brought to “de-escalate the wars and the tensions, de-escalate the rhetoric and hopefully bring the international community back to a place where we spend more time on dialogue and diplomacy in resolving conflicts rather than wars and fighting.”
Mitchell acknowledged that the conflicts were having an impact on countries like Grenada, where critical infrastructure projects remain a national priority, because if not, then the country essentially will grind to a halt. “If the roads are not repaired, if the bridges are not made safe then effectively affect people’s basic right to even move. So that remains a national priority. We are constantly scanning the world to look at the risks that are posed to Grenada’s development, Grenada’s cohesion and Grenada’s economic and social stability.”
Mitchell, who was sworn in as Grenada’s ninth Prime Minister on 24 June 2022, after leading his National Democratic Congress (NDC) to a 9–6 victory over the incumbent New National Party (NNP), said his administration has had to deal with several major obstacles since then, updating the country on various projects being undertaken in the tri-island state.
“In fact, I think as an administration, you could probably say everything that could happen to an administration in the last three and a half years has happened. We’ve had to deal with wars, multiple wars. We’ve had to do with coming out of the Covid pandemic, we’ve had to deal with hurricanes, you know we’d have to do geopolitical or regional tensions, we’ve had to do with tariffs, trade embargoes, you name it. So, we accept that stability.
“World stability is just not something we have any control over, and it seems as if the world is actually likely to become more unstable than stable. So, we are constantly monitoring this.”
Mitchell said that there are a number of things that that his administration has put in place including, “first of all fiscal prudence and responsibility.”
He said Grenada has a fiscal framework that is mandated in law that the government is required to follow. “Part of that fiscal framework is also ensuring that we set aside money, monies for rainy days, whether they’re natural disasters, whether they’re for economic shocks. Ensuring that we also mitigate risk by having things like our catastrophic risk insurance.
“So those things are ongoing and we continue to manage well. It’s also important for us to improve our tax collection because, as much as people don’t like paying taxes, the reality is the government is funded, the state is funded from the shared commitment of the taxpayers.
“So, improving our tax collection efficiency, making sure that people can pay the taxes online, for example. Simple tools like this have actually led to significant increases in tax collection efficiency, and we have to continue modernising and improving our tax base and constantly reviewing our tax model.”
Mitchell said that the Citizenship by Investment (CBI) programme, under which foreign investors are granted citizenship of the country in return for making a substantial investment in its socio-economic development, forms part of the country’s revenue base as well.
He said fuel is also a major challenge, noting that gas prices have gone up in recent times, with the government having to subsidise the product to consumers. The government is also subsidising electricity costs. “But obviously, given the fact that we need the resources to do all the infrastructure work that we’ve put out here, we have to be very prudent in not jumping to subsidise things simply because there’s an increase in price, because in doing so it means there’s less revenue for the infrastructure work that we require and that is ongoing.
“So, we will continue to monitor the situation. We believe, we are optimistic notwithstanding what is happening in places like the Middle East and Ukraine,” Mitchell told reporters.
CMC
He should know that diplomacy is a waste of time with Islam