The St Vincent and the Grenadines government has defended the decision to grant a 15-year tax break and other concessions to Jamaica-based Rainforest Seafoods SVG Ltd that has promised to invest EC$10 million (US$3.7 million) in a fish processing facility here.
“I just want to say that almost all the concessions given to Rainforest Seafoods are concessions given to manufacturers in this country and to hoteliers, people who invest,” Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves said.
“Well, if you bring that in a hotel, you get a similar length of concession. You also get for hoteliers and manufacturers – and these people we must remember, are a packaging entity. Cleaning and packaging, in other words, they are taking the raw materials and putting it together in a way for the market. And they’re bringing with them expertise and they are bringing with them also markets,” he told radio listeners.
Gonsalves said that there were persons commenting on the initiative because his administration had not approved their application to operate the existing fisheries facility at Calliaqua, south of here, which is being administered by a fisheries cooperative.
Prime Minister Gonsalves said that Rainforest Seafoods has similar businesses in other parts of the region, adding “a manufacturing entity is coming in; they get the raw materials for the building duty free. The same thing with an hotelier.”
