DOMINICA-ALBA-House Speaker defends Dominica's move in joining ALBA
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC - The decision by the Dominican government to sign on to the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), is getting the thumbs up from the Speaker of the country's House of Assembly.

Alix Boyd-Knights said being part of the Venezuela-led alternative to the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) will assist with both the infrastructural and economical development of the island, especially in light of the damage caused by recent natural disasters.

Boyd-Knights told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that ALBA has placed USD$1 billion in a fund that signatories can tap into. She added that Dominicans should be aware that those funds are not only available to governments but to the private sector as well.

"Dominica needs an injection of capital. Dominica has suffered from disasters by way of Hurricane Dean most recently. I don't think the Caribbean actually understood the devastation that Dean wrecked in Dominica.

"We had massive amounts of land slides and rivers forming where we never had rivers and all sorts of things, and the infrastructure was devastated and this was every where. So that it s a costly exercise to bring that back."

Boyd-Knights added that the government had also received the endorsement of the Dominica Chamber of Commerce for its decision to join ALBA.

Dominica remains the only country within the 15-member Caribbean Community

(CARICOM) to sign on to the trade and social bloc. Although the island's neighbours continue a wait and see approach regarding ALBA, the Speaker said such a decision should not be based on friendship alone.

"Yes we want to have friendly relations with the other countries, but at the same time it cannot be at having friendly relations at any cost. Or at a loss to our selves, you have to be realistic," she said.

CMC/08