TCI: Premier addresses nation on her government’s 3rd anniversary in office

#Providenciales, 19 December, 2019 – Turks and Caicos – My fellow Turks and Caicos Islanders, Residents and Visitors, three years ago today, December 16th, the people of this country elected my Party overwhelmingly. The past few years has been met with great challenges never before imagined but equally marked by accomplishments never before seen.

Three years later, we must give God thanks despite the winds of encouragement to complain, we are a blessed nation and many more blessings are on the horizon.

On being elected to Office in December 2016, we were able to finalise financial priorities within three months and passed the country’s Budget by March 31st. Our focus in a supplementary in two months benefitted the vulnerable, prison management and other critical needs. We were able to purchase three buildings for purposed retrofitted Government Offices for the Police, Immigration, Customs and Road Safety. We were on our way to tackle all the big issues left unaddressed by the past 14 years.

Hit by two hurricanes nine months later, my Government was put to the test like no other before. Though devastating and disruptive, with the help of God, and valuable partners locally, regionally and internationally, my Government rose to the challenge and made critical policy and executive decisions that saw an early recovery that earned us respect at home and abroad.

I have personally been invited regionally and internationally to speak of our accomplishments as a people including conferences in London, St Maarten, New York on two separate occasions and here in our region on multiple occasions. We remain grateful to God and while our agenda became more recovery focused, my Government has been able to deliver on and advance most of our key Manifesto promises contained in The Change Document. We intend to fulfill our contract with the people and will give our annual account of our work on January 7, 2020.

We remain proud of the major changes made and the critical work ongoing in national security, border protection and immigration. We are proud of our achievements and critical work ongoing in repairing and rebuilding the crumbling infrastructure we inherited (and worsened after the Storm); in advancing constitutional work and crown land changes; for ground breaking changes in health, special needs, education including our Trade School, culture, the delivery of social services, tourism, maritime, disaster management, environment, housing, delivery of public utilities services, safe reliable public service transportation, agriculture, youth and sporting programs, critical studies relating to our economy, economic stimulants, airport and port redevelopment, reviews of social safety net programs, progressive changes for the civil service and police, critical policies and laws that will empower our people in our economy including 100% service charge for hospitality workers, improvements, trade, business support, international obligations in the financial services sector and many other critical areas.

On January 7, 2020, we will set out, as you have become accustomed, our record of work across Government. Hold us into account. Much has been done but there is much more to do. Through stable, visionary leadership and with government and people uniting around our Vision 2040 National Plan, I am confident that we can achieve a united Turks and Caicos Islands. Working together, we can become a global leader in levels of prosperity and human development and our people can be positioned to be fully responsible for our collective future as a nation; we can have a more resilient country that balances economic, social and environmental development for the greater benefit of all our people and our posterity. This is in our reach: together we can; together we must.

We remain grateful for your trust and continued support, but more importantly, your prayers. My Government has been tested and scrutinized like no other and we know our record will stand the test of times. We are a working Government and while you see visible evidence of the changes on the way, there is much more underway.

May God continue to bless us and may He continue to bless these Beautiful by Nature Turks and Caicos Islands.

Release: TCIG