At a meeting with investors in the education sector the Prime Minister outlined his vision for the development of Grenada as a hub for international education, building on the success of St. George’s University.  SGU’s chancellor Mr. Charles Modica has already expressed strong support for the Prime Minister vision.   In this regard, plans for attracting University presidents to Grenada were discussed with a view to establishing more joint ventures with international colleges and St. George’s University.  In addition, colleges wishing to establish campuses in Grenada in areas that do not compete with SGU will be entertained.  This programme will ultimately benefit Grenadian students allowing them to study both at home and abroad.  Given Grenada’s leadership of the Alliance of Small Island States consisting of 43 island nations around the world and given the importance of Climate Change, Disaster Management and Sustainable Development to this group it was agreed at the meeting that special emphasis will be given to this important area so that Grenada could build strong institutional capacities in these areas so as to play a leading role on the international stage.

Further meetings were also held with the developers of the Media Village Project which, at its heart, will have educational and training facilities for film, music, internet technology and other forms of creative arts.  The village will also provide studios for film and music production and will have hotel facilities for attracting media stars and personnel to the island.  As a next step the developers will be visiting Grenada before the end of August to select a rural site for the project.  The Prime Minister expressed his hope that the project would benefit not only students all over Grenada and the wider Caribbean, but as a generator of economic development, the project will bring financial benefits to Grenadians living in rural Grenada.

A separate Health Village project was also discussed which will see Grenada building on its medical credentials, given the success of its Medical School.  Sites around the island will be closely studied in the next couple of months with a view to starting the project this year.  The project promoter, Ambassador Michael Melnicke expressed his desire to meet with the Minister of Health, the Grenada Medical Association, St. George’s University and key personnel at the Grenada General Hospital.

Following initiatives by Ambassador Antoine in Washington and Ambassador Friday in New York, the Prime Minister also met with Iceland’s Ambassador to the United Nations, His Excellency Hjalmar Hannesson who is also accredited to Grenada, to discuss co-operation with that country in the area of renewable energy for sustainable development.  With Grenada heading the Alliance of Small Island States and given its burgeoning role in the international arena on issues related to Climate Change, Disaster Management and Sustainable Development, Dr. Mitchell expressed his willingness to accept from Iceland an invitation to visit that country to see its geothermal operations.  The Prime Minister hopes that this could lead to further exploratory studies to assess Grenada’s suitability for geothermal energy and other types of renewable energy.  The Prime Minister and Iceland’s Ambassador expressed their hopes to begin co-operation within the next few months.