6.
-
running at about 1 million per year. This has largely gone
on modest infrastructure projects with a useful local cost
element, and this spin-off has helped sustain the health in
the economy referred to above.
10. BVI prosperity still hinges upon an up-market tourist
and holiday home industry. This
This in turn rektes to our scenic
beauty, an agreeable climate and the Islands' political
stability. The Union Jack is an investment guarantee as well
as a tourist gimmick. The tourist industry is very much
water-orientated (the job has given me three years of almost
perfect sailing and SCUBA) and the bareboat yacht charter fleet
may be the largest anywhere in the world. In season, upward of
a thousand yachts are in BVI waters. Cruise ships also make
their contribution - but in moderation. The BVI want more
tourists - but not too many. What they really want is more
money per tourist; and a longer and more even season. The
recently-introduced British Caledonian service from Gatwick to
Puerto Rico which connects to us here is bound to make a very
useful contribution.
11.
What else? Such oil possibilities as may exist are well
away from the main tourist areas. The BVI also has an off-shore
financial services industry (a fanciful description for tax
avoidance). In February this year we finally negotiated a
Double Taxation Treaty with the new United States Administration.
Unfortunately, as 1981 closes in, the US may be having second
thoughts on ratification. In the past, financial crooks have
made hay in these parts.
Indeed the headaches of a multi-million
dollar racket called Merchant and Mariners Bank, in which the
present Chief Minister, his predecessor and another Minister were
all involved, will loom large in my recollections of the BVI.
(BVI Ministerial corruption would be a despatch in itself.)
bit by bit we have sought to edge towards respectability and
Yet
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