The Tribune

PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said the government would draw $200m from the $1bn the UK EXIM Bank has made available to develop the Grand Bahama International Airport — not $400m as he had previously said.

“As far as the airport is concerned, I did indicate a number of $400m. I misspoke because it’s really $200m,” Mr Davis said in London in a video shared by his communications team. “We’ve been talking about a $400m package so as to include other airports that have not yet been completed. So the initial drawdown, we’re looking at is $200m. We’re looking at another $200m from that allocation for the purpose of developing other airports like North Eleuthera, completing the Exuma airport and other airport infrastructure.

He added: “We’re try to do it in a way that would not immediately increase our debt and so we’re entering this partnership with the UK Development Bank. For all intents and purposes, the bank has indicated to us that they would have $1b available to us for infrastructural development. We have to identify those projects to be able to decide what we would draw down. The fact that it’s available doesn’t mean we will use it all. It has to be a project that they could embrace and that they feel has what they call internal rate of returns that will benefit the country and its people.”

Former Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis blasted Mr Davis yesterday for his mistake.

“He is embarrassing the country yet again both locally and internationally and the prime minister is demonstrating a pattern of confusion and incorrect information,” he said. “This was clearly demonstrated during the midyear budget, when he was mixed up and provided incorrect data to parliament, and now on the world stage he’s demonstrating continuous confusion where he stated that he misspoke in the $400m drawdown. Obviously, that’s a lack of understanding of the procedure.”

The Free National Movement, meanwhile, expressed concern about the $1bn the UK Export Agency has made available.

“It is astonishing that the public has not been advised of the financing terms for this Grand Bahama airport project or what this ‘new’ $1 billion in funding is for,” the party said in a statement. “What commitments or guarantees has the Davis administration given for these monies? Why has there been no specific communication around this $1bn facility and why was there no mention of this facility in the Annual Debt Management Strategy or the Fiscal Strategy Report?”