The Turks and Caicos Islands is on Track to record a solid surplus, this according to Premier Hon. Washington Misick, during a news conference on Monday.
He pointed out despite the Turks and Caicos Islands waltzed into 2023 with fierce challenges caused by the global supply chain, inflation and other uncertainties, its revenue intake remined robust.
“And we can say, based on the way our revenue and expenditure is (sic) trending, that, again, we will end this current financial year with a good track record of solid surplus in our budgetary situation, as we plan to go into 2023/24,” the premier noted.
The premier crowed that the Turks and Caicos continues to have no debt hanging over its head, and as such, his administration would continue to be fiscally disciplined to ensure that such trend continues.
“Turks and Caicos as a whole, remains death-free, and we intend, as we pilot our way through this particular period, (and) we want to be careful to focus on sustainability, and focus on being accountable to ensure that we don’t drift into that situation, particularly as interest rates are increasing…we don’t want to get into that grey area of borrowing and increasing our debt burden. That is the context in which our FSPS (Fiscal and Strategy Policy Statement) is being cast,” Misck asserted.
He added: “We have taken into consideration all the critical moving parts. We have taken into consideration the need to continue to deliver both social development and infrastructure support for improved quality of life for our people in these islands.”
He pointed out that the news conference was held to reaffirm his government’s commitment to the campaign promises made to the people of the Turks and Caicos Islands.
“…And so, today, as a government, we come to you with fresh commitments, to continue to deliver on the contract that we signed with the people of these islands two years ago, February coming,” the premier reiterated, promising to be more open and transparent, especially with the setting up of its communication directorate.
“As it relates to the conversation with the people of these islands, we promise that we would continue to have that conversation, and we would be transparent, and we would communicate with you. So, we are working on that.
“Essentially, we are making some progress in setting up the government communication directorate. We have some new hires, and we will have additional talent…people in place, so that we can continue to improve the quality of the information, the timeliness of the information that we bring to you,” the premier continued.
He stated that government, going forward, would be holding at least one news conference every two weeks.
“What I can say to you (is) we made a commitment to start this year afresh, we have made a commitment to come to you with our press statements at least once every fortnight. That is the commitment we want to make.
“We have tremendous life-changings happening to these islands. Cabinet has been very active, and we haven’t been as quite as active in sharing that information with you,” Misick conceded.