Single largest construction site on island

By SVG Today Correspondent on 3/31/10

Over 1000 workers are currently employed at the Buccament Bay Resort Construction site and over US$100 million has already been spent on the construction.

That’s according to Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, who added that because of the amount of workers, the Buccament Bay Resort is the single largest construction site in the history of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. When completed, the resort would be worth over 250 million US dollars.

On Friday, while addressing the workers at the Buccament Bay Resort Construction site during a tour of the area, the PM told the gathering that Canouan has about 1000 workers, but they are in the hotels and construction companies, while Mustique has about another 1000, also in hotels and in just over 100 private homes.

“There is no construction site anywhere ever in this country that you have such a large number of workers being employed one and at the same time,” stressed Gonsalves.

He recalled persons were against the project and had labeled it ‘a phantom project’, meaning it does not exist.However, Gonsalves reasoned that the activity ongoing at Buccament is a project, “which is the consequence of the initiative of some skilled entrepreneurs and managers and the foresight and the collaboration in practical ways by the Government and people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines,” according to him.

He added that, in July the intention is to open 350 rooms. “Not all that number will be starting with occupation, but they will be opened bit by bit over a short period of time while construction continues,” the prime minister noted.
The resort is expected to be completed in every dimension by 2012, and the group is also interested in constructing another project at Mt. Wynne, Peters Hope.

“When they open the first phase I will be able to talk to them about Peters Hope”, said Dr. Gonsalves, who also spoke about the resort requiring some 450 persons to work when it opens. The resort already has bookings for over 1000 persons who have paid to stay there.

“We will have around 1500 Vincentians employed and when that happens Buccama will be the second largest employer of labour after the government”, revealed the PM who said that a lot of work is still to be done, “and then we want to move on to Mt. Wynne, Peters Hope”. The PM boasts, “the big hotel was not brought here because nobody was brave and bold enough to start an international airport; so when people are against the international airport for narrow political reasons I want you to know that down here you would not have had a job if I did not start the international airport.”

He added that the airport is expected finished by the middle of 2012.

PM Gonalves also said, that the builders of the resort is hoping to take a number of skilled workers to help build other projects in the Caribbean and, “they will move as far as Nigeria”.