– Prime Minister reveals MOU with China.
Dominicans have added to their pride, the renaming of their airport after two former prime ministers. The new official name of the Dominican Airport is The Douglas- Charles Airport and the country’s administration is already boasting of plans to construct an international airport on the island.
“I am adamant that we cannot continue, in this day and age, to have our main airport named after an 18th century slave-owner, while at the same time this government is actively seeking, along with our brothers in CARICOM, to get reparations for slavery from the British and European powers.” Those were the expressions of the islands Prime Minister at the renaming ceremony.
Prime Minister Skerrit dismissed suggestions that this was a politically motivated move by his government. This is in response to critics who see the renaming of the Melville Hall airport, after former Prime Ministers Roosevelt Douglas and Pierre Charles, not as honourable as it appears. Douglas died of a heart attack in October 2000 and Charles succumbed to a heart attack in January 2004.
Prime Minister Skerrit told those attending the renaming ceremony that the two former prime ministers had inherited the burden of an economic crisis from the previous United Workers Party (UWP) government “but they were not daunted by the task, nor were they pre-occupied with constantly laying blame on individuals”.
Skerrit said that as the island approaches the 36th anniversary of political independence, the demand for a larger airport has now reached the stage at which the facilities of the nation must undergo major expansion. “As such, we have recently signed an MOU with a private sector company in the People’s Republic of China to build the long anticipated international airport using the Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) model.” the Prime Minster boasted in his speech.
Skerrit said that the task was therefore left to the two former Prime Ministers to launch a major project to expand and upgrade the airport, which had been neglected for so many years.
Extracted and modified from Caribbean 360
