(FP)

Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley says there must always be reliable and affordable access for travel in the region.

Ms. Mottley made the comments on Wednesday afternoon in response to a question about LIAT, after delivering the feature address at the 59th Annual General Meeting of the Barbados Employers’ Confederation, at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.

It was recently stated that the Antigua and Barbuda Government had made a formal offer to Barbados to acquire its shares in the cash-strapped regional airline, LIAT.

However, the Prime Minister said: “I can assure you and the country that we are working on this every day.  But you also have to take the reality of an existence as you find it, and then determine whether the modality that you have is the best mechanism by which to deliver on that objective….

“Sufficed to say that the Government of Barbados at the appropriate time, when discussions are concluded with stakeholders at all levels, will speak to the country. Sufficed to say that by whatever means we choose, whether existing or other, there will be a commitment to providing affordable, reliable air travel between those in the Caribbean because without that we accept that there will be a serious constraint on our people….”

Ms. Mottley said she had refused to shout across the region on the LIAT issue.  

“I have been in public life long enough to know that when discussions are at a sensitive stage, that the worst thing that you can do is up the ante by trying to have some kind of public expression that may well lead to hardened positions and an inability for people to negotiate in good faith,” she stated.

sharon.austingill-moore@barbados.gov.bb

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