Imbert: Tobago airport, marina projects go on despite Sandals pull-out

Finance Minister Colm Imbert.
Finance Minister Colm Imbert.

Upgrades to the ANR Robinson Airport and the Tobago marina project in Canoe Bay will continue, Finance Minister Colm Imbert said today. This is despite the Jamaican luxury hotel chain Sandals announcing on Tuesday it will withdraw from a hotel project in Buccoo.

“We put in our 2015 manifesto that we were going to build a modern, world -class airport terminal in Tobago so that’s why we’re building it," Imbert said. "Of course it would have been very beneficial to Sandals and any other hotel and all the other guest houses and tourism operators in Tobago. That project is well on track. That (request for proposal) is out. I believe proposals are due at the end of February or the beginning of March. We put out an invitation for the supervising engineer; that is being processed now to determine who that would be, and we are also going to the Andean Development Bank (CAF) to ask them to finance the project. So we think we will be favourably received in that request.

"Land acquisition is ongoing, in terms of assessment of properties that have to be acquired. That project was always a project of the government and will continue,” Imbert told reporters at a media briefing at the Ministry of Finance in Port of Spain.

Asked what was next for Tobago tourism and the island’s economy, Imbert admitted he did not have “all the information at this point to give a definitive answer.”

“The Tobago economy would have benefited from the construction in the initial phase and then from permanent employment in due course, so of course we will have to look at alternatives, but we are continuing with the airport and marina project and other Tobago projects. We are not stopping,” he said.

He deferred further questions on Sandals to the Office of the Prime Minister, and line minister for the project, Stuart Young.

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