Taiwan has pledged to rebuild Grenada’s stadium complex that was destroyed by Hurricane Ivan in September. The Asian country is providing US$40 million (BDS$80 million), and a team of engineers is expected on the island shortly for assessment and design. The Caribbean Media Corporation reported that Taiwan’s Ambassador to Grenada Alan Lii-Shang Jiang made this disclosure earlier this week when he presented the money to Grenada Prime Minister Keith Mitchell. “This money is for the rebuilding of the Grenada national stadium that will be completely finished in the year 2006, because Grenada will host the International Cricket Council’s World Cup,” the Ambassador said. The Grenada Stadium complex was extensively damaged by Hurricane Ivan on September 7. Despite the damage which saw most of the cricket ground being destroyed, the Grenada World Cup committee was given a tentative “go-ahead” for their project. “A Taiwanese engineering team will be arriving in Grenada before the end of the month, they will come here to design and also assess the stadium,” the ambassador added. In thanking the Taiwan Government for the donation, Prime Minister Mitchell reiterated to the Grenadian people the importance of rebuilding the stadium complex, that includes the Queen’s Park cricket ground and the adjoining football and track & field stadium, ahead of the World Cup. “For those who said that we shouldn’t be talking about a new stadium, we want to say to them that if we did not have a stadium that money would not be there,” he said. “This is money committed to a stadium and the additional support of the Government and people of Taiwan would have come regardless of if a stadium was there or not.” During a tour of the facility in the aftermath of the hurricane, FIFA’s vice- president Jack Warner promised to raise money to assist in the rebuilding of the complex that is among regional venues selected to host matches in the World Cup. Grenada is one of four countries that have received extra regional assistance in their preparations for the global event. Reprinted from Nationnews.com