The Prime Minister has slammed the country's slowness in treating with developmental projects, describing it as specialising in "delay and obstruction."
Speaking at the sod-turning for Nutrimix's $150 million animal and pet food plant in Pt Lisas, Dr Keith Rowley said the country urgently needed to build its non-energy sector, because existing reserves are being depleted.
However, he noted despite best efforts, some in the country don't share that urgency, particularly with the slow approval process.
"One can sometimes get the impression that some of our entities are more concerned about the process than the outcome, and could really become quite annoying.
"I can tell you, I have had in recent times to talk a lot with my colleagues at Caricom in Grenada, Barbados, St Vincent and Jamaica, where they too are after the same kinds of growth and speed and urgency that we are after.
"But for some reason, in TT, we specialise in delays and obstruction. I have seen projects in Grenada and St Vincent move with alarming speed without destroying their country and without their population believing that everybody involved in the process is a scam (artist), and therefore you have to know every page, every day, every hour, every minute."
Having returned from a Caricom meeting in Barbados days ago, Dr Rowley said he had witnessed six large hotels and an award-winning golf course under construction. He said there was also quick work in St Vincent on a Sandals Resort, one of which fell throughinTobago in 2019 owing to negative publicity. Rowley then criticised the use of the EMA Act as a weapon to obstruct developments.
"In St Vincent, a Sandals project went from, 'Yes we want to do it,' to, 'Yes, it's being done,' to completion, to operation well inside the time that we in TT talk about getting approval for a hotel. Now that Sandals project is, well under way.
"I can't finish listening to (St Vincent Prime Minister) Ralph Gonsalves in my ears about how wonderful it has been for the economy of St Vincent, and they are just about to make another $250 million expansion of that project.
"We still talking about the approvals projects in Tobago."
He said counterparts in Jamaica and Barbados said their projects did not have to undergo a two-year tidal-movement coastal survey to go forward with construction.
"Enough information is available about the island...longshore drift, so you don't have to do it every time you have to have a project. That is foolishness, not to mention an unnecessary cost to the investor. The Caribbean Sea on the coast of Tobago is no different to the Caribbean Sea on the coast of St Vincent."
[caption id="attachment_1140996" align="alignnone" width="1024"] From left, Minister in the Ministry of Agriculture Avinash Singh, Trade Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon, Nutrimix president and group CEO Ronnie Mohammed, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, director Lydia Mohammed and Energy Minister Stuart Young at the sod-turning ceremony for the animal and pet food plant at the Point Lisas Industrial estate
