Gov't says no plans to sell Barbados airport

• February 27 2019
• http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/gov-t-says-no-plans-to-sell-barbados-airport_158194

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — The Barbados Government says it has no intention of selling the Grantley Adams International Airport (GAIA) and that an earlier statement regarding the future development of the facility may have been misconstrued.

“I tend to attribute to ignorance those things that other people would attribute to malice...So, when I read in sections of the press that the airport is for sale, I say to myself, 'That can't be malice, that must be a case of people don't understand'. So, I want to make it abundantly clear now,” said Tourism Minister Kerrie Symmonds.

Speaking at the launch of two new gates and waiting areas at the airport, Symmonds said it was unfortunate that his comments made at a function two weeks ago at the launch of a project to rehabilitate the airport's pavement and expand its near 40-year-old terminal, was misconstrued.

He said at the time that it was necessary to seek a worldwide tender as Barbados did not possess the technical knowledge for such an initiative.

The tourism minister said that the Government was also not in a financial position to develop the airport on its own and would therefore need assistance.

“It is known that we intend to work with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which is essentially the private sector arm of the World Bank and the world's leading developmental institution, to give us the kind of technical expertise because Barbados does not possess it in a matter of this nature,” he said then.

But he told the ceremony on Monday, “this partnership will see us find, by way of an international bidding process, a partner who will invest some money into this airport, who will design, who will construct, who will build and will operate for a period of 20 to 30 years.