Government has decided to advance a policy to set up a special facility at the Agricultural industrial Development (AID) Bank to support micro, small and medium enterprises.

The thirty million dollar facility was announced by Prime Minister of Dominica and Minister for Finance, Hon. Roosevelt Skerrit during his 2020/2021 budget address in July of last year.

PM Skerrit stated that this assistance is required if these business are to development and add to the country’s economy.

“In the 2020/2021 budget address I indicated to the nation that Government is cognizant of the need to continue to assist micro, small and medium businesses in accessing the necessary financing for their development growth and viability. Government will provide o the AID Bank an amount of thirty million dollars over a three year period for unlending to micro, small and medium sized business. That was the commitment the Government made to the nation in the current fiscal year,” the Prime Minister noted.

PM Skerrit then announced that 27 million out of the promised 30 million will be advanced to the AID Bank in May 2021.  

“I am happy to report that we will be advancing that initiative and we will provide the AID bank in the month in May with 27 million dollars in one cheque that will go towards micro, small and medium sized businesses in Dominica to unlend to them at highly concessionary rates. So were truncating a three year programme by advancing the funds to the AID Bank, 27 million out of the 30 million committed,” PM Skerrit added.

A new cooperative has been established in Grand Bay as the community works to revive the local agricultural sector.

The newly registered Grand Bay Farmers Food Producers Cooperative Society Limited was launched on March 24 2021.

As part of the celebrations, the Ministry of Sports Culture and Community Development including the Cooperative Division presented the society with a cheque of five thousand dollars to begin their work. 

President of the Grand Bay Farmers Food Producers Cooperative Society Limited, Mr. Roland Delsol Jr. stated that he and his members are excited to begin working towards achieving the goals of the cooperative.

“We are excited to get this going. Some of our short and medium term goals include establishing a cooperative office and agro outlet where members can source inputs at concessioary rates. We intend to provide training to new and existing farmers on best practices in farming and running a business. Our long term goals, is the establishing of a farmers market, a structure dedicated to the sale of produce, while producing office, storage and meeting space for the cooperative,” the President noted.

Member of Parliament for the Grand Bay Constituency, Honourable Edward Registe commended the members for their efforts to establish the cooperative. He encouraged them to continue working and developing themselves to ensure the success of the organization. 

 “You must all be commended for your efforts for I am sure that you had you go through many meetings, many trainings and many seminars; and don’t believe that it is over, you have to continue in order to sustain the cooperative. You have got to go to these trainings to ensure that you keep your focus sharpened to be at the helm of leadership in any cooperative. So it is certainly not over, you still have a lot to do and I know that the Cooperative Division will assist you greatly in ensuring that you do this.

The Parliamentary Representative urged the cooperative to form partnerships with other likeminded organizations for a higher level of success and unity.

 “Now I advise you to seek to build partnerships with other cooperatives in your endeavor to build capacity and respond to the challenges which you may encounter. So there are several other cooperatives around you, so you can build partnerships with them and learn from their experience as they have been around for quite a few years,” Honourable Registe stated.

 Meanwhile, Minister for Blue and Green Economy, Agriculture and National Food Security, Honourable Fidel Grant encouraged the members to be proud of their profession.

“Farming continues to be the most noble of professions and in every way possible you should espouse that; you should be knowledgeable and noble about your profession. People may say they don’t want to get Agriculture but there is so much that Agriculture has to offer. You should feel that you are in a noble profession,” the Minister stated.

 The Agriculture Minister went on to say that cooperation is a huge part of Agriculture noting that “over the years our Agrarian economy has largely benefited from cooperation and alliance.”

 He explained that the combined efforts of the farming community have succeeded in achieving record production in crops over the years, adding that we can return to this point if we continue to embrace the spirit of cooperation in Agriculture.

“The benefit accrued to not only collective yields but the shared division of labour but through effective transfer of non-traditional crop and technologies,” the Minister noted.

Minister Grant pledged his Ministry’s support to the cooperative noting that the establishment of this cooperative is evidence of the Ministry’s policy direction.

“The Ministry supports this movement whole heartedly. This occasion represents the policy direction that the Ministry is embarking on. This particularly important where farmers pool their resources for productive results to be united for the purpose of sharing the benefits, common vision and mission. Given an unpredictable and abnormal prevailing global situation, banding together provides strength to persevere and to surmount the many challenges to our livelihoods and economy. The Ministry of the Blue and Green Economy, Agriculture and National food Security pledges its unwavering support to your cooperative and too all other groups in Dominica, mindful of the national development, economic growth and continued rural cohesiveness. The members of this cooperative is on to something good and we within the Ministry and the Government appreciate this,” the Agriculture Minister added.

Minister for Sports, Culture and Community Development, Honourable Roselyn Paul noted that this cooperative is in in line with the World Banks 2008 report which puts agricultural cooperatives back on the agenda.

 “This occasion represents cooperation and self-help and reminds us of the traditions of years past where neighbor helps neighbor to tend each other’s gardens and to build houses for each other. So I am very proud to be part of this event where we celebrate and build on the culture of ‘coud me’ a tradition that we should hold in very high esteem. You the members of the Grand Bay Farmers Food Producers Cooperative have taken a step in the right direction. You are keeping up with the World Bank report of 2008 which puts the cooperative model back on the agenda and in particular agricultural cooperatives,” Honorable Paul explained.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Sports, Culture and Community Development, Mr. Lucien Blackmoore told the members that while the early days will be hard work, they have the ability to make the cooperative a success.

 “So I really want to welcome on board the Grand Bay Farmers Food Producers Cooperative Society Limited. Welcome on board in partnering with the Ministry that has the mandate to ensure that we build strong communities and create the required robust economy that we need to really improve the quality of life for ourselves. It’s not going to be easy, it’s going to take hard work, it’s going to take determination; but you can comfort yourself by first understanding and recognizing the hardest part of a journey is always the first step. If you are bold enough to make the first step then everything else will follow,” the Permanent Secretary noted.

The members were also encouraged to work together for the betterment of themselves, the cooperatives and their community.

“Don’t look for benefits after the first year. It is a time for you to put your efforts together to work and build yourself. One of the principles of cooperatives is caring for community. Caring for community means caring for yourself, caring for your neighbor. If you care about yourself, you must care about your community because there is no way you going to be very successful and that success is going to successful. Unity is the foundation of cooperatives,” stated Mariet Canoville, the Commissioner of Cooperatives.

The Elias Nassief Foundation has donated a ventilator to the Dominica China Friendship Hospital. A handing over ceremony was held on Friday March 12, 2021. 

Representative for the Elias Nassief Foundation Mrs. Maroussia Nassief-Reid says the ventilator is at a cost of thirty thousand US dollars.

“Forgoing all other donations, the foundation took this as a priority and ordered a state of the art ventilator costing US 30,000 dollars. The ventilator was ordered last year February, but due to the backlog of orders from the pandemic, it was only delivered to Dominica last month. A special thank you to Minister McIntyre for facilitating this process. So on behalf of the Elias Nassief Foundation, I am pleased to donate this ventilator to the DCFH in the hopes that it will facilitate this hospital and benefit the people of Dominica,” Mrs. Nassief-Reid stated.

Mrs. Nassief-Reid says the foundation saw the need to donate the ventilator after the start of the covid-19 pandemic.

“The ENF was established in 1995 by the children of Elias and Marie Nassief ad is used primarily to assist schools, day care centres, the elderly, retired nurses past employees and others in need of help. The foundation does not solicit funding request but will instead choose the institution or person to be assisted on an annual basis. Last year with the sudden impact of the covid-19 pandemic, the foundation, with the advice of several people, decided that the DCFH was in need of a dependable and durable ventilator,” she explained.

Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health, Wellness and New Health Investment Mrs. Letitia Lestrade-Wyke says the foundation has made donations to Dominica in the past. 

“This is not the first time that the Elias Nassief Foundation has been assisting and making contributions to the health services in Dominica and I am sure that it will not be the last,” Mrs. Lestrade-Wyke added.

Government is investing over two point one million dollars for the rehabilitation of the coast guard jetty.

A contract signing ceremony for this project was held on February 24 2021 at the coast guard base in Fond Cole.

Minister for National Security and Home Affairs, Honourable Rayburn Blackmoore stated that when completed, the project will enhance the safety of police officers of the Marine Unit and contribute to timely responses of the coast guard. Minister Blackmoore commended the officers for their dedication to the service.

“These officers never protested but continued to show up for work day and night, whether it rained, whether it was windy, whether it was cold. To you police officers in the Marine Unit, you exemplify what service to country really is. I want to also place on record, Government’s sincere gratitude to the United States Government for the continued assistance to the growing unit. I want to add further that the officers of the Marine Unit is a very challenging one, especially in today’s reality as we are confronted with the challenges brought about by covid-19, and the whole issue of illegal entry into our country,” Minister Blackmoore stated.

Acting Chief of Police, Lincoln Corbette stated that the rehabilitation of the jetty is a welcomed project.

“It would be remiss of me if I did not take this opportunity to commend my officers at the marine unit for the commitment and zeal in the performance of their duties and for trusting that the process will come to fruition. You must trust the process,” the Chief of Police noted.

Commissioner Corbette also expressed his gratitude to the United States Government for the donation of a floating jetty in 2019 and for their continued assistance. He added that the unit will continue to protect the maritime boarders.

Project Manager, Mr. Bergis Stoute gave an overview of this project. He explained that the first task of this project is to eradicate what is damaged of the jetty.

“The contractor will proceed to install new timber planks suited for the marine environment. These planks will be coming from Guyana, which is one of the best timber suited for that particular environment. The project also calls for extensive concrete works so you’ll be seeing the pouring of new concrete beams and the pouring of the new pile caps. The concrete work will be a combination of precast concrete and in-situ concrete,” the Project Manager explained.

Acting Deputy Chief of Police, Mr. Davidson Valerie expressed his gratitude to the Government of Dominica for the realization of this project.

“We hope to see its completion and we look forward to utilizing the wharf at the soonest. We want to extend our thanks also to the project manager added the people who are going to be involved in the construction of the project,” Deputy Chief Valerie added.

The coast guard jetty was built in 1988 by Edghill and Associates Limited, a Barbadian company and was funded by the British Aid Programme in the Caribbean. The rehabilitation of the coast guard jetty is expected to be completed in twenty weeks. Island roofing and hardware limited is the contractor for this project.