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View of Roseau from Morne Bruce
As government seeks to transform the city into the commercial capital of the OECS, land acquisition problems could pose a setback.
That’s the word coming from Dominica’s Minister for Urban Renewal Julius Timothy.
Timothy said government is faced with the problem of raising money to purchase the land.
“One of the things with re-developing the city is that government has to acquire property and the development agencies will lend and give you money to build the house and any industry you want but when it comes to land acquisition, no one gives you money to buy your citizens land. The difficulties that we have now are to find the money to buy the land and this is a major problem. Everybody wants to get government land for little or no money, but when t comes to government buying land from the citizens, everyone wants top dollar. This is a real challenge for us,” he said.
Timothy said government has taken a position that it will not sell any land from the Roseau north area.
Meantime Timothy said government has acquired land to construct the Windsor Park Stadium and is still unable to pay for the properties.
“Those lands have been acquired for quite a while now but it’s just not easy to pay the people for their land. As we get the money, it’s gradually being done,” he added.
