Beautiful Virgin Islands

Wednesday, Oct 15, 2025

BVI/UK engagement ‘dramatically reduced’ since VIP took office — Director of UK OTs

BVI/UK engagement ‘dramatically reduced’ since VIP took office — Director of UK OTs

Director of the British Overseas Territories (OT’s) Ben Merrick said ties between the British Virgin Islands and the United Kingdom have weakened since the Andrew Fahie-led administration took office in February. This was expressed via a public letter addressed to Premier Fahie on September 2.

The director said: “It is disappointing that engagement from BVI reduced dramatically after your election six months ago, including the cancellation of your visit to London in May, which would have included meetings with Her Majesty’s Treasury ministers and Lord [Tariq] Ahmad to discuss this very issue (UK loan guarantee).”

“I had wanted my Head of Economics to discuss this with your Financial Secretary during our visit to BVI in June but this offer was regrettably not taken up. However, I am pleased to hear that this is now being prioritised by your government,” Merrick added.

Misleading information from government

Merrick also said the present government is not being entirely truthful with the public on certain matters.

The director said he was pleased government had public consultations on the UK government’s loan guarantee offer but said he was “surprised” at some of the comments Premier Fahie made at those meetings.

 “I am concerned that your statement regarding the specific detail of the UK government’s offer runs the risk of being interpreted as misleading. I know that these points have previously been clarified to you and your officials, and hope that the Governor’s statement and the letter from the Economic Secretary to the Treasury on August 21, 2019, have assisted,” Merrick said.

One such ‘misleading’ statement Merrick pointed out was that the UK is demanding BVI ‘hand over almost full control of the management of the territory’s finances to the RDA’.

“The British Virgin Islands Government is responsible for public finances, upholding the principles of sound public financial management. It is BVI’s RDA, implementing BVI’s Recovery to Development Plan. The British Virgin Islands Government sets the priorities. This model is internationally recognised as the most efficient way to implement recovery at pace and is replicated in other Caribbean countries facing similar recovery challenges,” he said while responding to the Premier’s comment.

No changes

Merrick also reiterated Governor Augustus Jaspert’s recent statements that there has been no change to the conditions surrounding the UK government’s offer of a loan guarantee to support the recovery and development of the territory.

“As you highlight, it is the choice of the British Virgin Islands Government as to whether or not to use the loan guarantee to access funding to rebuild,” the UK director said while highlighted that it has been nearly two years since the loan guarantee offer was placed on the table.

He also confirmed that any new borrowing by the BVI could cause the government to breach the territory’s borrowing ratios outlined in the BVI/UK Protocols for Effective Financial Management agreement. However, Merrick again confirmed that the UK government will consider any proposals to help the BVI return to compliance. This, he said, includes allowing the BVI a transitionary period to return to compliance.

“Any transition period can of course only be finalised when you express how long for, and what amount of borrowing the government wish to take up,” Merrick noted.

The BVI has up to the end of September to decide whether they will accept or reject the loan guarantee offer.

Premier Fahie has since said the BVI will have a referendum on whether to accept the loan guarantee if his upcoming visit to the UK is fruitless.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Australian Prime Minister’s Private Number Exposed Through AI Contact Scraper
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Australia Faces Demographic Risk as Fertility Falls to Record Low
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
×