PM, airport CEO rubbish viral voice note

In a characteristically dramatic flourish, the Prime Minister has dismissed rumours that either China or private investors have taken over the operations of the Grantley Adams International Airport.

“Stupse, a long stupse, a short stupse, a flat stupse, a big stupse. No,” Prime Minister Mottley declared Wednesday evening at the Prime Ministerial Global Town Hall Meeting for Barbadians in the diaspora.

Backing up the Prime Minister’s denial, the airport’s chief executive officer, Hadley Bourne said: “We deny this allegation. It is simply untrue.”

The denials were prompted by a viral voice recording claiming the island’s lone airport had been leased to China for 30 years.

Government has offered to enter into a private-public partnership (PPP) with a prospective firm to manage the airport.

The airport CEO insisted that when such a contract has been agreed to, “the Government of Barbados will retain ownership of the infrastructure, while the airport operator would be granted a concession to expand, operate and maintain GAIA until the end of the contractual period at which time its operation would return to GAIA Inc.”.

Bourne explained that the recording referred to an article published on the GAIA Inc. website in 2016 regarding a contract signed between the Anhui Foreign Economic Construction Group (AFECC) and the China National Complete Plant Import and Export Corporation Limited (COMPLANT) for a loan to be facilitated by the China Export-Import Bank for the airport’s future expansion.

“That arrangement was subsequently suspended,” he said.

Under the PPP, the airport has been seeking a qualified private investor to operate, expand and improve operations at the GAIA through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) with the guidance of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, since 2019.

The GAIA CEO said the project was now in the procurement phase in which 13 companies/consortia were prequalified since last August.  However, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the aviation industry led the GAIA to revise the structure of the PPP, he said.

“The 13 prequalified bidders will receive Requests for Proposals in the first quarter of 2022 when the restructuring of the transaction is complete. As such no private investor has been awarded a contract to operate GAIA at this time,” Bourne maintained. (SD)