Governor Jaspert made these calls today, February 3, 2020, at his press conference dubbed 'Catch up with Governor Jaspert' at the Governor's Residence in Road Town, Tortola, where he touched on a number of issues regarding where the Territory should be heading in this new year, including strengthing the institutions of government and pushing recovery and development.

Challenging year ahead - Gov Jaspert

"2020 is a challenging year, its a challenging year but also a year full of opportunities. For me, I think we need to make sure that we seize those opportunities. We have a recovery and development that I believe needs to increase the pace and we have the opportunity to do that," the Governor told members of the local media.

It should be noted that the Governor's comments came following questions on his assessment of the Virgin Islands Party (VIP) government over the past year.

He underscored that while his job was not to assess the Government, he laid down the gauntlet regarding areas of improvement he is looking for in the Fahie administration in 2020.

"We have governance standards that are not at the level that they should be for a Territory that has so much opportunity and we need to improve that," Governor Jaspert further said.

Plans into action

According to the Governor, 2020, therefore, must be the year that the Territory executes the plans regarding its recovery and development plans and rebuilding the Territory.

"So all of those areas and the other areas I talked about, really this is about how do we actually make those improvements that people have talked about, and the things that people say how do we actually deliver them," he said.

The Governor noted that for him, 2020 must be a year where the administration must start questioning how to execute its development plans and improve its services as the VI's recovery progresses.

"There has been huge work particularly from businesses, from communities... but can we really say we've taken that leap into the Territory on recovery and development? There's a lot to do, that is what 2020 I think will be about and I look forward to it coming to fruition," he said.

Governor Jaspert also said the Loan Guarantee discussions between the United Kingdom and Virgin Islands governments are ongoing and he could not say more on that at the moment.

"I hope that progress is made rapidly on it," he said.