Grenada confirms Australia will no longer fund construction of new parliament
From caribbean360
Construction work on the new building was due to begin later this year. Legislators have been using the Grenada Trade Center to host parliamentary sessions.
ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada, Thursday February 13, 2014, CMC – The Grenada government Wednesday confirmed that Australia will no longer fund the construction of a new Parliament to replace the one destroyed by Hurricane Ivan in 2004.
“We have received communications from the Australian government that they have changed their foreign policy with regards to funding projects and they will be pulling out of this region and instead focus on the Indian Ocean, Asia-Pacific region,” Foreign Affairs Minister Nicholas Steele said.
Construction work on the new building was due to begin later this year. Legislators have been using the Grenada Trade Center, south of here, to host parliamentary sessions.
Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop recently confirmed a series of reversals in the foreign aid commitments which the previous government made as part of its campaign to win a seat on the United Nation’s Security Council. Votes from Africa and Caribbean states helped the then Rudd government secure the seat.
According to reports out of Australia, while in opposition, Bishop was a strong critic of Australia’s strategy to win the UN seat.
Steele said that the Australian government had promised five million Australian dollars (One Australian dollar = US$0.90 cents) and already provided one million dollars for preliminary works.
“They have not ask us to return the money because it was used in the preliminary preparations, what they are doing is not providing further funding. But I must tell you that we will continue with the construction because as you know we also received support funding of five million US dollars from the United Arabs Emirates and we will use that to start the project,” he said.
“I am already in discussion with other donors to ensure that we have enough to complete the new Parliament building and these discussions are ongoing,” said Steele.
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