Bhoe boasts of PP’s work

CLINT CHAN TACK

CARONI Central MP Dr Bhoendradatt Tewarie boasted last week that the People’s Partnership (PP) government was successful in diversifying the economy. In making this boast, Tewarie claimed the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) was more interested in “political survival of that party” rather than the, economic survival of the country. In his contribution to debate on a private motion on the economy in the House of Representatives, Tewarie listed the boardwalk and a water park in Chaguaramas, amongst several projects undertaken by the PP which were aimed at diversifying the economy. “We were a hard working government,” he declared. While admitting the PNM was successful in bringing down expenditure since it assumed office, Tewarie said revenue generation was poor. Noting that March 7 will mark 30 months the PNM has been in office, Tewarie said the climate in the country now is not right or ripe for investment. He cited crime as one of the contributing factors for this. Tewarie claimed that while the energy sector has its challenges, the crisis in oil and natural gas is not as bad as the Government makes it out to be. Tewarie said the country continues to experience foreign exchange challenges and potential investors would be wary of coming to TT if they felt the Central Bank would be controlling the flow of foreign exchange. Tewarie welcomed TT’s improvement in the 2017 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index and said this was due in part to the PP’s efforts in areas such as public procurement legislation.