Pace development for people says Astwood 

By Dana Malcolm 

Staff Writer 

#TurksandCaicos, July 31, 2023 – Edwin Astwood, Opposition Leader, is calling on the Government to rein in development to allow the people of the Turks and Caicos to catch up.

“A government must pace development with the development of the people or we will only be developing a country for others to benefit from,” he warned.

Addressing the booming development of the country, he said not only was there too much on one island, residents were being left out.  To fix this he said TCIG would have to learn how to pace development knowing when to slow down and speed up.

The statement comes at a time of increase for the Turks and Caicos, with over $2 billion worth of investment in the pipeline, mostly in Providenciales.

Historic levels of income are being recorded year after year on a national scale  but residents still have little access to capital and are forced to contend with an incredibly high cost of living fueling doubts about how well the success is trickling down to residents.

“Now we are seeing development taking place but is it our contractors getting those big projects?  Is it TCI People working?  We have to learn to stagnate development– give our people a chance to develop their skills,” he advised.

The Government has introduced initiatives including a plan to create a stock exchange and a new national credit union for residents to allow them better access to financing.

Astwood also maintained that in order to be truly independent, residents would have to be economically secure and financially independent.  He stressed that this was a critical step to achieve before they could hope for political freedom.