UPP concerned about Browne Administration’s over- dependency on borrowings from China

The United Progressive Party (UPP) is expressing concern about
Antigua and Barbuda’s debt exposure to the People’s Republic of
China.
 
Antigua and Barbuda and China have had a longstanding beneficial
relationship. At present, the Government is repaying several loans
to the Chinese EXIM (Export/ Import) Bank, including borrowings
for the V.C. Bird International Airport terminal and the expanded
Port Authority facilities.

However, during a recent trip to the Asian country, Prime Minister
Gaston Browne signed several Memoranda of Understanding

(MOU’s) – ostensibly for areas of development. However, no details
on these agreements have been published.
 
Damani Tabor, UPP public relations officer, says this mounting debt
exposure to a single nation is dangerous.
 
Tabor says that Antigua and Barbuda needs to diversify its
diplomatic relations and stop this dependency on one country.
 
He notes that the UPP is not blaming the Government of China.
Rather, he says, this situation has come about because of the Browne
Administration’s poor relationship with a number of other
countries.

Meanwhile, speaking about the Browne Administration’s opening of
an embassy in China, as well as some of the other agreements it has
undertaken, Tabor says that the Government’s priorities are warped.
 
For instance, instead of Alibaba providing Antigua and Barbuda with
medical technology using artificial intelligence, the UPP officer says
the prime minister should have gotten it to invest in some repair
work on the hospital first.
 
It is nonsensical to have this type of technology in a hospital that is
rundown and unable to manage such scientific advancement, Tabor
says.

That was Damani Tabor, public relations officer for the United
Progressive Party.