A deal for a new hotel could be signed by the end of the year.

Premier Craig Cannonier said: “I don’t see why it’s not possible — but it will take everyone moving swiftly. No promises, but 100 percent effort.”

Mr Cannonier added a deal could be struck for a new hotel for St George’s or for the Par-la-Ville Road site.”

He said: “The existing hotels we have, we are looking at them and at new investment, whether it’s in St George’s or in Par-la-Ville in the city.”

He added that the requests for proposals had gone out and that Tourism Minister Shawn Crockwell would be updating on progress in the House of Assembly.

But he said: “I don’t want to make any commitments there but our focus is on getting a commitment — we would love to come to a conclusion by the end of this year with some of these projects.”

Mr Cannonier was speaking as he outlined what his Government hoped to achieve by the end of the Parliamentary year.

He added: “What we are looking to do is get a clear consensus of where we are financially and where we stand.

“This is about moving our country forward and moving as close as possible to a balanced budget.

“We’re trying to show investors that we can be responsible with our purse. That’s our goal.

“And for our people, we want them to realise we are not seeking to do them financial harm or increase stress on them — that’s why we didn’t increase taxes.”

And Mr Cannonier said: “As we move forward this legislative year, it’s really about getting deals signed and getting people investing in the country.

“With hotels, we want to see shovels in the ground and we will be seeking out opportunities.”

He added: “As Premier, the primary objective is to get this Island back on its feet and I will continue to seek out those people who wish to invest in this country.”

And — following a row in the House of Assembly on Friday over a refusal to detail how much contact he had had with US development firm Landow — Mr Cannonier repeated that he had nothing to hide.

A trip on a private jet along with two other Ministers, paid for by Landow, to meet senior members of the Maryland-based firm led to an earlier row over whether Government had breached the code of conduct for Ministers.

But Mr Cannonier said: “There has been no wrong done here — we have simply sought out opportunities to get our people back to work.

“We have a track record of continuing to be called demons, wizards, masters of the dark arts, yet the Opposition continue to want us to collaborate with them and work with them.

“It makes it very difficult for us to get a balance to move things forward.”

Mr Cannonier added: “When the OBA took over, international businesses were considering leaving or had already started to leave. If we did not stop the bleeding there, to hold on to what we do have, we would be in a far worse position 14 months later.”