According to Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, the Republic of China on Taiwan (ROC) is not the largest lender to St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG).
According to Gonsalves, the NDP recently reported that people believed the approximately EC$477.9 million debt SVG has to Taiwan is the biggest debt the government has to any institution or nation.
“The estimates will tell you that the World Bank’s public debt was $588 million as of September 30th, last year, and that money has not yet been distributed. For instance, there have been some, but not all, disbursements of the EC$270 million loan negotiated to develop the Acute Referral Hospital”.
“I can’t borrow money from the World Bank when the interest rate ranges from 3% to 1.26 percent there, right? The Cumberland Hydro Project, which Milton Cato borrowed money for, has the highest interest rate from the World Bank at 3%; we still owe $5.6 million on that loan. Furthermore, the loans we have are 45-year loans”.
Gonsalves stated that SVG had access to $414 million from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB). Additionally, SVG still lacks the majority of the $300 million that the nation borrowed from the CDB for the port out of this total.
“The ALBA Bank supplied loans totaling $127 million for airport construction, and if it weren’t for the Petro Caribe loan, which saw a complete debt forgiveness, it may have been even more. Therefore, although claiming to like Taiwan, they criticize St. Vincent for borrowing from it and claim that Taiwan “has a hook in the gill of St. Vincent and the Grenadines” on the other side.
“I never said that. The NDP’s desire to leave Taiwan, in my opinion, is a hook in their gill. The majority of people are content with Taiwan. Furthermore, our partnership is not transactional but is founded on well-defined values”, Gonsalves stated.