Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Kerrie Symmonds.
THE Grantley Adams International Airport (GAIA) is not up for sale.
Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Kerrie Symmonds, stressed this point as he sought to bring greater clarity to recent statements he made about the divestment of the airport. He said this was necessary because the comments which he gave two weeks ago while addressing a function at the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), were misconstrued by some sections of the media.
Symmonds went on to explain that Government will be “entering into a divestment process in which we will have a public-private partnership. That partnership will see us find, by way of an international bidding process, a partner who will invest into this airport, who will design, who will construct, who will build and who will operate the airport for a period of 20 to 30 years. So that person [or] that entity can get a return on his or her investment and then at the end of that period of time, they will hand the operational control of the airport back to the Government and the people of Barbados”.
Symmonds was at the time addressing last Monday’s official opening of Gate 14 to 16 seating area at the GAIA. He told those present that divestment was necessary because “a substantial capital injection” was needed to help the airport reach its maximum potential. Symmonds added steps in the process have already commenced.
“I am pleased to report to you that the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry received today [Monday] from the IFC, which is the International Finance Corporation – the private sector arm of the World Bank, their confirmation of notice that we have sent to them. The notice we sent to them was notice of the fact the Cabinet of Barbados two Thursdays ago approved this process and they in turn have now sent us a draft financial services agreement which we will finalise. The purpose of the financial services agreement is to itemise those aspects of the financial services that the World Bank’s private sector arm will assist us with.”
He continued, “In addition to that, the financial services agreement will also set down the time frames which will then be able to hold to account, so that there are certain steps along the way that we can make sure that we take in an adequate amount of time. I believe that within the next six months, we should have been able to have completed, for example, a new master plan for the airport and we should be on the road thereafter to identifying, by way of international bid process, the new operator of the airport.”
Symmonds stated the process ideally may take “between 12 to 14 months, depending on how nimble we are”. He added, “Time is of the essence as far as the Government is concerned, because we want to make sure that the airport is in maximum capacity to have maximum operational efficiency as soon as possible.”
