Above: Dominica (CJ Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

The government of Dominica and Chinese firm Anhui Shui An Construction Group have signed a memorandum of understanding for the construction of a “modern type” hotel in the country.

The project would be located on the existing site of the Public Works Corporation in Roseau.

“As we had indicated on several occasions, the Government of Dominica intends to build a hotel on the existing site of the Public works Corporation, and this was also articulated in the 2013-2014 Budget address,” Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit announced. “We believe we are to grow our economy and create sustainable jobs, if we are to expand the tourism offering, we have to address fundamentally the issue of inadequacy of rooms and more critically export ready rooms.”

Part of the plan is to improve the island’s capacity for hosting large conferences, according to the Prime Minister.

“On several occasions Dominica has had to either not accept to host regional and international conferences because of inadequate number of rooms,” he said.

“We have signed the MOU to take the country to the next level.”

The government is working on another hotel project, the Cabrits resort near Portsmouth.

Skerrit said the reviewed designs should be on stream shortly.

“We are also holding discussions with potential companies with regards to which chain of hotels we will be associating this project with as a means of bringing international exposure to the country as far as marketing is concerned,” he said.