Economist Indera Sagewan-Alli is urging Government to hold its hand on completing the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba, since it could put a drain on the Treasury, given the country’s economic situation.
Sagewan-Alli said the $90 million the Urban Development Corporation of T&T is projected to spend on the stadium to get the sporting facility operational could be invested in agriculture to generate revenue and help reduce the country’s growing food import bill.
She said the stadium “should not be priority” at this time.
While restarting work on the stadium would create jobs, Sagewan-Alli said: “When you look at the medium to long term, it is going to create a further drain on the Treasury and with maintenance...”
For years, Sagewan-Alli said, stadiums in T&T have not been revenue generating, “so if there is such a plan for this stadium to generate money then the Government needs to share it with us. You are spending this amount of money when the country is challenged with revenue and foreign exchange.”
Capital expenditure must relate to income generation, Sagewan-Alli said.
She said the country’s food import bill, which stands at $4 billion, was creating a foreign exchange crisis.
“We don’t have foreign exchange but we have the capacity to produce food to feed ourselves. The agriculture sector should be a priority not just in producing food, but also in value added and manufacturing.”
She believes there is no quick-fix solution to the stadium’s problem.
‘Put Children’s
Hospital in private healthcare system’
On the issue of the Children’s Hospital, she questioned whether we were going to add another institution into a network of inefficiency.
“While people have been calling for the Children’s Hospital to be opened, the reality is that our healthcare system is extremely inefficient. Are we going to add another institution into the network of inefficiency? There is nothing to lead us to believe it would be different.”
Sagewan-Alli said every year the Government pumped billions of dollars into the healthcare system while measures were not put in place to prevent non-communicable diseases such as heart conditions, strokes, diabetes and cancers among citizens.
The economist suggested that the Government should retain the services of an international agency or strategic partner “who can put the Children’s Hospital in the private healthcare system because of its size and volume.
“By doing this, we could see the price of private health care going down.”
But, according to economist Mary King, to spend $90 million on a $1 billion project, “I don’t think you could complain about that.”
King said the stadium needed to be completed.
“It has obviously deteriorated. So six years ago it would have cost $40 million to finish it. Now, given what is happening in the world, I don’t think $90 million should be a problem for us.
“I think we need to finish the damn stadium. It has not only been an eyesore, it has been a waste of a facility for years...sitting doing nothing.”
Once completed, King said, the stadium would have many uses.