Mary has been preaching the gospel of an economy driven by local entrepreneurs and skills. Trouble is, local businessmen do not share her vision.

To all appearances, the country will be returning to orthodox economic planning rather than Patrick Manning’s dicey policy of industrialisation based on direct foreign investment in the energy sector.

Irishwoman Mary King, siren of economic diversification propelled by what she calls the “inshore economy” of local investment as well as the so-called modern knowledge industry, has been handed the Ministry of Planning and Development portfolio by new Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

Mary, who like the late Lloyd Best and others, eschewed Manning’s economic strategy of an “offshore economy” of direc t foreign investment and dependence on rents or revenue from the energy sector, will now have the opportunity to test her theory in a dispensation where the local conglomerates and other heavy hitters have shied away from taking risks in her recommended inshore economy. It is truly safer to buy and sell, particularly imported cars and other foreign goods.

No entrepreneur wants to open a roti chain here and the rest of the Caribbean: it is easier to get involved in a foreign chicken and chips franchise or some ridiculous foreign sandwich chain.

Mary has been mandated to develop a  medium term framework. But how do you persuade local investors to put money in the energy sector other than to provide supplies and services? Just how do you do that Mary? By offering generous tax concessions and guarantees?

It is all well and good to talk about a mono-crop  plantation economy: it is an entirely different proposition to change this.

Local businessmen have been recommending the Singapore model which really is based on industrialisation by invitation and, of course, hard work.

However, Kamla must be given full marks to return the country to formal economic planning rather than the previous model which worked while oil, gas and other commodity prices were buoyant.

The Manning Administration has been proposing to build aluminium smelters, the first being at Vessigny,  a project which has been subject to court action: whether this multi-billion facility which will have its own electricity plant and port will be put on hold for environmental reasons.

Campaign rhetoric and Opposition sentiment is one thing, the reality of economic development is an entirely different matter.

Kamla has fashioned a 26-member cabinet aimed more at keeping her coalition Government together- Congress of the People and Tobago Organisation of the People parliamentarians were all given ministerial appointments- rather than it having a decidedly Indo United National Congress look.

She has started off on a good foot and one must wish her the best of luck in an international economic environment that still looks dodgy.

It will be interesting to see how her experiment with Ms King, who served with distinction as an independent senator, works out. Mary was said to be part of a team of economists that wrote the party’s manifesto but implementing these ideas may be a different story.

Kamla Persad-Bissessar..TT's first female Prime Minister

Kamla was unable to partake of the eats and drinks at her inauguration yesterday as she had to rush to see about business-flooding in central and south Trinidad.

The People’s Partnership whipped up a mighty political storm that blew away the formidable People’s National Movement (PNM)- but , literally, on day one in office the victors found themselves in flood waters in their strongholds in Central and South Trinidad.

Things were so bad that new Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar had to forego the refreshments after being sworn in to see the damage first hand and hold talks with the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management (ODPM) to deal with the situation which many residents in low-lying areas are faced with annually.

Today, Kamla and others were back in the field with United National Congress (UNC) chairman Jack Warner, who retained his Chaguanas West seat garnering an astounding 18,000-plus votes affirming that because of the distress suffered by his constituents he was changing his mind about being a backbencher and would now accept a cabinet post.

Minister of the People, perhaps, or a similar creation by the new administration, which proposes to have a Ministry of Legal Affairs, an Attorney General and a Minister of Justice as separate ministries. The cabinet postings will be announced tomorrow when, hopefully, the PNM would have made up its mind on kicking out Patrick Manning.

The honeymoon may still be on but the wedding feast has been put on hold as the reality of running Trinidad and Tobago impacts on the new Government immediately.

Kamla spoke about working on an early budget and she may discover that the party will be unable to balance the 2010-2011 budget just as her predecessors were unable to balance the current one, having to fashion a deficit of almost $8 billion.

Things may not be that gloomy as gas and oil prices recovered admirably over the past 12 months and are well over the budgetted figures but the party’s promises of $3,000 monthly pensions for senior citizens, a $20 an hour minimum wage and the scrapping of increased property taxes will certainly look unrealistic in terms of Government’s revenues.

In other words, the new administration will have no alternative but to put these promises on the backburner, particularly, when it has to contend with wage negotiations from several sections of the public sector.

It will be interesting to see whether in the coming months it will be singing from the same hym book as Errol McCleod and its friends in labour. People should be reminded that former radical trade unionist George Weekes was deemed persona non grata when he became a minister in the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) Government which cut public service salaries and took away cost of living allowances.

While the economic conditions may not be identical, the current situation, particularly, in light of an uncertain international economic dispensation, demands fiscal restraint on the part of Government and the new administration may be forced to cut back on Government spending, especially on prestige projects and unproductive make-work endeavours such as CEPEP and URP.

Kamla will be inheriting the multi-billion burden of the failed C.L. Financial empire, a heavy debt portfolio and falling revenues.

Aprat from this week’s floods if not because of it food prices are due to rise and compensation will have to be paid for flood damage.

Oh lord! Not a moment to, properly, celebrate victory.

San Fernandians do not know who their councillors are. So Mayor Fergusson has come up with the bright idea of putting them on bicycles in hilly San Fernando.

There were guffaws recently when it was announced that a police bicycle squad would be created to fight rising crime.

Now San Fernando Mayor Kenneth Fergusson, unhappy that not many people knew the identity of the city’s councillors, with a straight face, announced yesterday he may have to deal with this by “putting them on bicycles”.

Fergusson , a businessman, who is serving his fourth term, noted that the Mori Poll (a British pollster) had placed the San Fernando City Corporation as the best run of the country’s 14 municipalities.

“One of the remarks in that survey was that citizens….some citizens do not know their councillors. Or some councillors. This was a concern to me and this I plan to address in the coming year even if it means putting them on bicycles and let them ride the constituency with the police.”

He did not say whether they would be on bicycles with the Police Bicycle Squad cycling up San Fernando’s steep hills. New Chaguanas Mayor Natasha Navas, who was in the audience, heard the outlandish remark and did her best not to burst out in laughter.

Fergusson’s classic remark was made in his acceptance speech after he was sworn in at City Hall, Harris Promenade, San Fernando and it made the rounds of bars in the southern city.

]]> http://www.tntinsider.com/government/01228/bicycles-for-san-fdo-councillors/feed/ 0 http://www.tntinsider.com/government/0988/local-govt-polls-in-2010/ http://www.tntinsider.com/government/0988/local-govt-polls-in-2010/#comments Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:08:29 +0000 Nello Lewis http://www.tntinsider.com/?p=988

Local Government representatives get another year in office. Meanwhile, are drains cleaned and garbage collected on time?

In the 1960s, the People’s National Movement (PNM) suspended Local Government polls for eight long years- between 1960 and 1968- after a less than favourable showing at the 1959 County Council elections. Then, the combined opposition –Democratic Labour Party, Butler Party and independents won 38 of the 72 seats.

The PNM, although gaining the ascendancy in the July 2003 Local Government elections has returned to its old ways of repeatedly postponing the polls thereby giving the incumbents seven years in office.

Local Government Minister Hazel Manning, in her characteristic sweet, sincere manner, assured the House of Representatives yesterday that there would be elections next year. The process of reform would be completed in six to nine months time. She spoke’ effusively, of training of Local Government personnel, the utilisation of information technology as she tried to convince suspicious Opposition members that the reforms will result in benefits to the public.

Hazel’s style, body language and delivery make her one of the more credible MPs but that did not prevent Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday from calling for elections in a couple of months time. Panday argued that the Government was afraid of calling the elections because of falling popularity. Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner warned that “what we have is an emerging dictatorship”.

The Municipal Corporations Bill was passed on Monday night and will go to the Senate this afternoon where there is expected to be a lively debate. The legislation will be sent before a Joint Select Committee of Parliament where it would be streamlined and brought back to Parliament.

This means that top People’s National Movement (PNM) members Roger Boynes, who was former Sports Minister, and his younger brother, Ronald, Chairman of the Sangre Grande Regional Corporation, are once again crying all the way to the bank.

The first retreat took place on November 12, 2007 – one week after the PNM won the last General Election – and just under $1 million was splurged on the event.

It didn’t appear to have done much good because there have been much bumbling and stumbling by Patrick Manning’s new recruits who have been rather unkindly described in some administrative circles as “on the job trainees” (OJTs).

There has even been an admission by the Prime Minister, himself, that there is a need for the speedier delivery of public services; a point that was echoed by Deputy Speaker Pennelope Beckles.

Health care and law enforcement, in particular, have been identified as troublesome areas.

However, in the portfolio changes announced National Security Minister Martin Joseph and Health Minister Jerry Narace escaped unscathed.

After a few days by the sea, Manning and his cabinet are back in their air-conditioned offices in Port of Spain.

Is it business as usual or will citizens see a gradual improvement in the coming months in the delivery of the various services?