Jungle Bay Makes Good on Economic Citizenship Programme

In a statement released earlier today, representatives of Jungle Bay Resort & Spa say they will on Monday make the first payment to government on their Economic Citizenship Programme Loan.

This follows an acrimonious public debate over the issue during the recently concluded election season.

Samuel Raphael, owner/developer of Jungle Bay Resort & Spa intends to make an initial payment of one hundred thousand eastern Caribbean dollars ($100,000.00) to the Government of Dominica through the escrow account of the company’s attorney. This will make Jungle Bay Resort & Spa the first company to successfully complete an investment and begin to repay their loan under the Economic Citizenship Programme of the Commonwealth of Dominica.

According to the release, in 2006, Jungle Bay Resort & Spa immediately accepted Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit’s proposal to discount their $6.1 million dollar loan balance by 50% however, despite numerous meetings and requests over the past four years, the company has yet to receive a revised document spelling out the new terms and conditions for the repayment of its loan. In light of the situation, the company has decided to pre-empt the process and begin to repay the loan. The funds will be transferred from the attorney’s escrow account to the treasury as soon as the appropriate documents containing the revised terms and conditions are obtained from the government.

“Jungle Bay feels that the Prime Minister’s 50% loan reduction offer is fair and appropriate compensation because the Government’s mismanagement of the Economic Citizen Project caused the project to incur additional construction costs” the release stated.

After several interruptions with the loan administration the developer eventually completed the resort using private funds.

Jungle Bay intends to pay the Government of Dominica one hundred thousand Eastern Caribbean dollars ($100,000EC) every February and August for the next twenty years. Mr. Raphael states that “Notwithstanding the obvious economic challenge this debt repayment will add to the company’s operating finances, we are keen to settle this matter and look forward to continued collaboration with the government in the quest to develop the island’s economy in a sustainable manner”.

Jungle Bay Resort & Spa is an award winning eco-adventure resort on the southeast of Dominica which employs over 60 persons in the southeast. The resort significantly contributes to the economy of the southeast with purchases of considerable amounts of produce, fish, other agricultural supplies as well as arts & crafts from local farmers and suppliers. Jungle Bay has paid the Government of Dominica one million four hundred and nine thousand one hundred and ninety one dollars and ninety six cents ($1,409,191.96) in VAT payments from March 2006 through 2009 plus our guests have paid over half a million dollars of departure tax during this period. Jungle Bay has immensely enhanced the international image of Dominica through numerous positive magazine articles and international tourism awards..