Prime Minister addresses Nation on Airport re-opening

Fellow Citizens and Residents
As you are aware, we reopened our airport last Monday to regional and international air traffic.
An American Airlines flight, piloted by a national of Antigua and Barbuda, will be the first international flight to arrive today at the V.C. Bird International Airport.
The passengers on that flight will be, for the most part, Antiguans and Barbudans returning home from the United States which is now plagued with two grave crises – both of which excessively affect black people.
COVID-19 has caused more than 105,000 deaths in the United States of which a disproportionally high number has been black.
And right now, there is considerable unease and anxiety amongst the black population, in the wake of unrelenting institutional discrimination and unceasing racist brutality.
It is entirely understandable that, given those two distressing circumstances, our nationals want to return to the comfort of their homeland.
All of us understand the importance of giving protection to our own.
So, while we will take every precaution to control the transmission of COVID-19 to the domestic population, we will not deny our own nationals who are abroad, the solace in returning to the common home we share.
There will also be visitors on that aircraft.
They will be among the first tourists to our country, since COVID-19 caused the necessary closure of our airport and seaport to human traffic, triggered the shuttering of our hotels, and instigated the worst damage to our economy in many decades.
No one in our nation has escaped the ravages that COVID-19 has visited upon our economy.
In one way or the other, it has touched us all.
Some have felt that unwelcome touch more than others.
In their cases, they have not only experienced job losses, they have also suffered the misery of losing a loved one prematurely.
As a nation, our heartfelt sympathy pours out to those families, even as we thank God Almighty for guiding and protecting us, in ways that controlled the disease and curtailed its awful and fatal reach.
It was not easy to do battle with that enemy.
COVID is as invisible, as it is vicious.
We did not seek this COVID battle, but we did not shirk from the fight.
Safeguarding our people’s lives was – and remains – our principal objective.
Until there is a vaccine against COVID-19, our nation – like every other nation in the world – is engaged in a war in which there will be other battles.
What we must not do is live in fear, paralyzed in terror, and rendered helpless in the face of this enemy.
That cannot be the course we take.
For, if we do so, we will surrender ourselves to further ravages to our lives and to our livelihoods.
We cannot live our lives hiding from COVID, but we must never become complacent in fighting this enemy.
We must recognise that it is a formidable foe, but that if we all act responsibly with strict adherence to the health protocols, we can halt it in its tracks and free ourselves from the trepidation that it instils.
As a people, we have already shown ourselves capable of containing COVID.
Our health care practitioners have identified persons infected with COVID-19 and have isolated and treated them successfully.
They have traced the persons with whom the infected persons were in contact, and have tested, quarantined and isolated them as appropriate.
Yes, we have successfully controlled the spread of COVID, however, we must guard against complacency that could fuel a second wave that may prove more challenging and damaging.
We kept the number of confirmed cases to 26, and deaths to 3.
And, you have all played your part by adhering to the health protocols.
You have utilised masks to protect yourself and others; you are practicing good hygiene etiquette to kill the virus should you become in contact with it; and you have practiced social distancing to limit the transmission of the virus.
These are the practices in this war that we must continue to unfailingly employ if we are to win against this enemy, and not surrender to its capacity for decimation.
And, we should recall that this is a war in which every nation, every man, woman and child on this planet is involved.
We are not alone.
The circle of life now encompasses the global community with an obligation for every one of us, to stand-up and resist this virus, if we are to win.
Already, in Antigua and Barbuda, we are better prepared for managing infectious diseases than we have ever been.
Our medical facilities are equipped with the necessary equipment including additional ventilators, increased hospital beds, isolation units and most importantly, medical personnel now experienced in treating the disease.

We have also established protocols and facilities at our hotels and resorts to transform them into bio-secured properties, to provide our tourists with a high level of comfort and security, knowing that we have the capacity to protect them better and treat any illnesses more effectively.
My brothers and sisters
Vital to our winning is, rebuilding our economy as quickly as possible.
And crucial to this rebuilding, is opening our borders to tourism which has developed our country, and which can contribute to sustaining us again, while we adopt new ways of diversifying our economy.
Unless we open our borders and restore our economy, we face another powerful enemy – economic collapse, high unemployment, overwhelming poverty, and no financial means to sustain ourselves.
This is a time to face the inescapable truth – frankly and boldly – that we cannot take the unviable, risk-averse decision, to keep our country’s borders closed.
We cannot pretend that our nation’s economy and our family prospects have not been severely hurt from the disruption of tourism and the lock down of our country caused by the threat of COVID.
My Government is deeply conscious of the effects that private sector lay-offs have brought to families.
We know that, in many cases, it is only the earnings of a government employee in the family that has kept food on the table.
That is why, despite the precipitous reduction in revenues, my Government has employed every tool that we could use, to continue to pay public servants.
The welfare of all our people – regardless of political affiliation, or any other affiliation – is uppermost in our minds.
But, unless the economy is reopened and every possible thing is done to rebuild it; the challenges we now confront will not be overcome any time soon.
That is why we must not hesitate to act and to act now.
That is why we need to put money in the pockets of our people, to get employment going, to bring bustle back to business and make the economy flourish again.
My administration will not further undermine our country’s resilience and pawn our people’s fortunes by contracting large unsustainable debts, as the previous government did. We will not do it.
It will be recalled that, under the previous administration, over two Billion dollars in loans were borrowed, which not only pushed-up our debt to GDP ratio to 101%, as recorded by the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, but today remain like an albatross around our necks, with little sustaining benefit.
Because of these excessive borrowings which brought only temporary cash flow relief, forty cents of every dollar collected in taxes are assigned to repay these debts.
The reaming 60 percent is used to cover salaries, wages and other personal emoluments.
My government has kept our extremely vulnerable economy afloat and buoyant through increased tourism and investment revenues. That was our only choice.
Now that these revenues have been curtailed, the underlying vulnerabilities of our country have asserted themselves.
My government has been systematically addressing these vulnerabilities, by reducing our debt to GDP ratio from the 101% we inherited to 69 percent as at January 2020, and by promoting sustained and robust economic growth, which, unfortunately, has been abruptly paused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The mismanagement of the previous administration, as you will recall, resulted in high unemployment and poverty; their imposition of personal income tax, ABST and other tax measures; the crippling of small and medium sized businesses; and the collapse of the economy.
Our Government cannot countenance a similar scenario of increased taxes, high unemployment, and poverty.
That is why we are moving assiduously to reopen and rebuild our economy to put our people back to work as soon as possible.
To this end, our Government has commenced recapitalising the Antigua & Barbuda Development Bank and expanding the Entrepreneurial Development Fund to support our small and medium size businesses with concessional loan funding.
Our Government will also extend up to $50M in guarantees to the commercial banks, to support lending to businesses so as to maintain jobs in the private sector, during this challenging period.
Additionally, cash support will be provided to the vulnerable through the Board of Guardian, Petro Caribe, cash and food grant programmes operated by the Ministry of Social Transformation, Human Resource Development and the Blue Economy.
We cannot contemplate firing public servants and burdening our people, by imposing high rates of tax in conditions where life is already hard.
We will borrow on reasonable terms where we can for productive purposes but, first we must rebuild the elements of our economy that will allow us to earn revenues from which we can repay the debt incurred.
Brothers and Sisters
Let me assert my own fundamental belief, that we as a nation, will not perish; ultimately, we will rise like a phoenix from the ashes, and we shall flourish.
We will not dismiss the destructive power of COVID-19, but we will not slink away from it, allowing the ravaging of our livelihoods and wellbeing to go unchecked. We will certainly press with the advancement of the country’s economy.
We will meet this enemy as we have met others before.
We shall courageously, intelligently and responsibly, live and work with COVID, limiting its infection and containing it.
After every hurricane in this country’s history, we have woken up to their destruction, and, undaunted, we have resiliently picked-up the pieces and rebuilt painstakingly and purposefully.
In 2017, Barbuda was decimated by Hurricane Irma, resulting in a 15% reduction in GDP.
The following year, without significant external assistance, we posted a growth rate of 7.4 percent, the tenth highest in the world according to IMF statistics. That’s the nature of the resilience of our people.
Despite the challenges my administration faced from the inheritance of a decimated economy, a high debt overhang, failed banks and the subsequent destruction from Hurricane Irma; we led the way to spectacular recovery through ingenuity fuelled by entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation.
We did so before and as a resilient and talented people, we shall do so again.
We will do so because this is our land, our home which holds our ancestral past and our children’s future.
We have never shirked from any challenge, or failed to preserve our heritage, nor have we shied-away from building our own legacy.
We will not do so now.
Action is required, and action we shall take.
We will restore the prosperity of the Antiguan and Barbudan people, as one nation, one people with a common destiny.
Our first task is to put people back to work.
We can do it; and we shall do it, by addressing the challenges prudently and fearlessly.
The Economic Recovery Committee that I chair, consisting of representatives of every sector of our society, has created many ideas and innovations, not only to bring relief but also to recover and transform our economy.
In the coming weeks and months, we will implement these strategic plans.
In the past, when disasters have befallen us, we chose not to fear but to strive, not to rent ourselves asunder, but to march in lock step with a single national purpose.
It is that spirit, we must summon now: a resilient spirit of solidarity, shared burden and sacrifice, for the advancement of our country and its people.
So, let us regard the landing of the American Airlines flight today as the beginning of our national rebirth and as a symbol of our economic re-ignition.
Let us proceed together as patriots, in optimistic solidarity to meet the challenges and overcome them.
We can do it and we shall do it.
May Almighty God continue to bless us all.
Thank you.

Source: CARICOM TODAY