TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS
Capital Aid
1981/82
£
974,000
Budgetary Aid
1981/82 (estimate)
500,000
TC
222,000
1,696,000
Plus Club Med project total cost £3,940,000
1.
--
Advanced form of Ministerial Government similar to BVI,
though control of finance is still retained. After having been out of budgetary aid for some two years, a considerable deficit on the annual budget has been built up and budgetary aid will have to be restored as from 1 April 1981. The former Government (which lost office in November 1980) had agreed to campaign for independence in mid-1982 in return
for an aid package of some £12 million but reneged on its undertaking shortly before the election when it found that there was little public support for early independence. The present Government wishes to develop
the economy as a first priority but does not rule out independence as the ultimate goal, possibly by 1985. Having no natural resources other than fish, tourism offers
the only present prospect of developing the economy and there are signs that the Club Med project is attracting other investors in the industry.
2. Drug traffic through the islands is a real problem but is being tackled with considerable help from the US Drug Enforcement Agency.
West Indian and Atlantic Department
February 1981
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