Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell recently urged Grenadians not to become too complacent, as the country continued recovery efforts following the passage of Hurricane Ivan last September. The category three storm killed 39 people and left behind damage estimated at US$740 million. Dr. Mitchell told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that although Grenada had made significant recovery during the past year, a lot more work still needs to be done, particularly in the area of housing. “We estimated that we’ll have to reconstruct about 6,000 homes. So far we’ve provided material for 7,000 – 8,000 persons to rebuild their homes and to help them to at least fix up their homes,” Mitchell said. Dr. Mitchell said to date, his administration has provided new homes for close to 600 people, and other countries are also offering assistance in that area. “The Venezuelans are now building 130, the Chinese have promised and will be starting 2,000 homes, working with the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, the Chilean government had promised some houses and now the Venezuelans and Cubans have promised more,” he said. He also noted that the recovery process will take up to three or four years and while he is satisfied that the country is on its way to meeting its basic needs, “we still need more support.” With regards to economic performance, Dr. Mitchell said the government is projecting a one per cent growth this year. “It looks as if because of the extent of the construction boom in the country in the area of transportation and some other services, we could have a growth rate of about six per cent this year. “So although there’s a tremendous drop in agriculture and tourism, this downturn has been surpassed by the extent of the increase in construction and other related services,” Dr. Mitchell said. Also Grenadian authorities said there was “light at the end of the tunnel” as the island reflected on the devastating impact Hurricane Ivan had when it swept through the region a year ago. The hurricane struck Grenada on 7 Sept., last year, killing 29 people and destroying the island’s economy. Damage had been estimated at EC$2 billion dollars. Finance Minister Anthony Boatswain said the storm came as the island had been enjoying relative prosperity over the past few years. “After generating a recurrent surplus for 12 years consecutively, we have a situation where we have a recurrent fiscal deficit. This is a dangerous sign because it means that you cannot meet your day-to-day expenses,” he said, even though he was optimistic that the economy would recover significantly in the near future. “There are a lot of positive signs that the economy will improve as I said, the construction sector will continue to grow over the next couple of years,” he said. “By then we expect the agriculture sector to make some progress with the resuscitation of the nutmeg industry, there should be some progress in the banana industry because there are plans to grow bananas on a large scale as a payment in kind for oil we will be getting under the PetroCaribe (the Venezuela oil initiative to the Caribbean) deal,” Boatswain said. National Disaster Co-ordinator Sylvan McIntyre, said he also believed the island was on the road to economic recovery, even as he acknowledged that there was still much to be done. “We’re still in need of help, you realise that we had a double impact almost one year later we had the impact of Emily as well and that would have also set back, but the positive way out of it is that it has given us the doors of opportunity to build back the entire country and we’re going to implement what we learned,” he said. McIntyre said as a result of the hurricane, the whole attitude and planning in disaster preparedness had also improved significantly. “We should not see another Ivan situation in Grenada even if we had a Category three or in excess of that, the response will be different I’m sure. “The infrastructural damage would be different because I am seeing more adherence to the building code the building practice etc.. our response, the mental approach, the social activities and everything else, I’m sure Grenada would be a better place,” he added. Reprinted from sunstkitts.com