Grenada’s Prime Minister Outlines Vision 75 Agenda

By Klysha Best

The conference room at the Radisson Grenada Beach Resort was alive with the energy of business and tourism stakeholders, returning nationals and the buzz of possibility. 

On June 30, 2026, Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell delivered a keynote address that went far beyond welcome remarks, it was a strategic call to action for a 25-year vision of national transformation.

“The country is not going to be built by what you send back home,” Mitchell told the packed room of Grenadians from across the globe. “No country is built by what its diaspora sends back home. The country is going to be built by those who stay to build it and by those who come back to build it.”

“And coming back doesn’t mean physically coming back,” he added. “Technology allows us to build from anywhere we are.”

That was the central theme of Mitchell’s keynote at the Diaspora Homecoming Forum and Marketplace, a national initiative running from June 21 to July 5 designed to reconnect Grenadians abroad with their homeland and channel their expertise into tangible development.

Mitchell framed his address around Vision 75, the government’s ambitious blueprint for Grenada’s 75th anniversary of independence in 2049. He used his own life as proof of what can be achieved in 25 years.

He went from a child to a graduate of the Hugh Wooding Law School in 25 years, he said. “And in less than 25 years, I went from a graduate to standing here as Prime Minister.”

“The first message I want to leave with you is that you have to believe in yourself. This country needs to believe in itself and its people.”

Mitchell was blunt about the nation’s most pressing challenge: energy.

“If your salary is $1,500 and from one month to the next your energy bill is $500, you’re plunged into poverty,” he said. “We cannot educate our children. We cannot talk about improved healthcare if the cost of energy is prohibitive.”

The solution, he insisted, lies in transitioning away from fossil fuels and toward renewable and green energy, solar, wind, and especially geothermal.

“We already have the resource: the sun, the heat beneath our soil, the waves, the wind. What we need is the capital and the know-how and the will to transition.”

Mitchell revealed that the Ministry of Renewable Energy is pursuing two geothermal sites in St. John and St. Patrick, with test wells expected to be drilled by the first half of 2027.

“What is important is that 10 to 15 years from now, the cost of energy is affordable, that energy remains reliable, and that our energy security is improved.”

He invited the diaspora to partner in this transition, whether through investment, technical expertise, or helping to shape the regulatory environment.

While pushing for renewables, he also made a strong case for hydrocarbon exploration.

“We are located in a part of the Caribbean Sea that must have hydrocarbon deposits on our ocean floor,” he said, pointing to Trinidad and Tobago’s century of oil and gas production, Venezuela’s vast reserves, and the recent discoveries in Guyana and Suriname.

“The question is, why not Grenada?”

He announced that a technical working group, led by former Finance Minister Nazim Burke, has spent two and a half years gathering data to “prove the existence of a hydrocarbon resource.” The findings will be presented to Parliament over the next six to twelve months.

“We owe it to the next generation of Grenadians to make sure that if we need to extract commercial quantities of oil and gas, we can do so in a reasonable and environmentally safe manner,” Mitchell said, adding that the exploitation of hydrocarbons would be “the most transformative economic asset this nation may have for the next 25 years.”

Mitchell identified two critical gaps in Grenada’s financial ecosystem: the near-absence of FinTech and investment banking.

“FinTech virtually does not exist in Grenada,” he said. “Many of our citizens are unbanked. Many of you, the diaspora, experience the frustration of dealing with banks in Grenada.”

He pointed to examples in Africa where FinTech has brought millions into the financial ecosystem and challenged the diaspora to help create a similar leapfrog in Grenada.

“Whether it’s to advocate, to force our banks to get into the modern era, or to create your own FinTech bank yourself, we will not stand in your way.”

On investment banking, he was equally direct: “If you take away the citizenship-by-investment programmes, there has been virtually little foreign direct investment in Grenada in the last two decades.”

“Only one major tourism hotel has been built without citizenship-by-investment,” he said. “If the programme comes to an end, where is foreign direct investment going to come from?”

His answer: a modern financial services sector, powered by the diaspora.

Mitchell turned to housing, a sector he described as “unique to the diaspora” and ripe for disruption.

“We need to create the first formal housing development ecosystem,” he said. “Right now, you have to buy the land yourself, negotiate the financing yourself, find a contractor yourself. There is no cookie-cutter approach.”

He called for a task force involving banks, credit unions, contractors, and developers to create a regulated, financed, and planned housing sector, one that builds communities, not just houses.

“We need to make sure housing developments are planned, financed, and that we think about 50 years from now,” he said. “The days of thinking you can only build as high as a coconut tree are over.”

Mitchell  gave a nod to Grenada’s agricultural heritage, and a warning.

“You can’t be the Isle of Spice without spice,” he said, urging diaspora engagement in the National Spice Replanting Day.

He also issued a direct challenge: “Grenada should not export any raw nutmegs.”

“Every part of the nutmeg has commercial value,” he said. “We have to ask ourselves: what are the jobs being created by exporting raw nutmegs?”

He noted that while Grenada has just five or six boutique chocolate factories, the potential for value-added agriculture is enormous and the diaspora can help unlock it.

Mitchell’s address was a reminder that diaspora homecomings are about more than nostalgia. They are about partnership, investment, and co-creating a future.

“This might be an uncomfortable truth,” he said, reflecting on the fragility of belonging anywhere. “The place where you built and made your home may find that it is not comfortable. But in one place, you can’t be told to leave.”

“Since we can’t tell you to leave, you need a place to stay. And we don’t have enough places for you to stay.”

Grenada is open for business. And the diaspora is not just welcome, it is essential.