While Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar has blamed the Government for T&T’s economic crisis, the Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) says the People Partnership must take responsibility for the mismanagement of public funds and its failure to minimise the effects of falling oil and gas prices.
In their first media conference for 2016, MSJ leader David Abdulah yesterday focused on the rebuilding of the economy, saying that increased hydrocarbon production and diversification was needed if the country is to climb out of the recession.
Outlining three reasons for the economic decline, Abdulah said the decrease in oil and gas prices and lower production has rippled to affect the petrochemical industries, including the production and export of methanol, ammonia and Liquified National Gas (LNG).
This, he said, was compounded by a waste of public funds over the last five years when oil and gas prices soared, which should have provided the perfect opportunity to diversify the economy. However, he said failure to find alternative and sustainable revenue sources was not limited to the PP but successive past governments.
“During the last year, the (PP) government failed to acknowledge the fact that we had an economic storm developing and therefore they failed to put in place mechanisms that would begin to mitigate or minimise the fallout from lower prices. The last government has to be held responsible,” Abdulah said.
To Abdulah’s credit, he did predict T&T was headed for a recession back in January 2014, owing to low oil prices, plans by energy companies to cut staff and outstanding bills by the then government.
Abdulah said the MSJ would continue to make suggestions on taking T&T forward as it seeks to make itself a formidable party in 2016. Among his suggestions was to maximise potential revenue from hydrocarbons by increasing oil and gas production while diversifying the energy sector. This includes the sales of energy services to other countries given T&T’s history as an energy producer. This, he said, can also fill shortfall in foreign exchange and create sustainable jobs for nationals.
He said agriculture also has to be given a major priority for export earnings, suggesting the Government tap into the niche market for local cocoa.
Tourism is another potential area and he proposed the redevelopment of East Port-of-Spain to a heritage city. He said on New Year’s Day tourists from a cruise ship were wandering around Port-of-Spain but there were no attractions for them to see.
With a heritage city in place, tourists would be able see how pans are tuned, enjoy Calypso shows and buy steelpans and CDs for top US dollars. He admitted this would require the control of crime in the city, which he said needs to be dealt with through education and jobs.