Kamla: E-W Corridor to be growth pole

UPDATE:

UNDER a future United National Congress (UNC) government, the East-West Corridor will become a growth-pole full of various light-manufacturing industries such as medical supplies and food processing, vowed Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar. She was speaking at a UNC meeting on Monday at Caura Road, El Dorado.

Persad-Bissessar related that in 1945 the corridor had been the country’s manufacturing and industrial hub from Arima to Port of Spain, attracting migration by job-seekers, but after the crash of 1986, many companies left.

“This created a problem whereby we have a workforce in the East-West Corridor, but no jobs for them. Years went by and now we have a social problem of crime, because the manufacturing industry has not been revitalised.

“We plan to designate the East-West Corridor as a special growth pole. There is a highly educated and skilled workforce in place, they just need the jobs.”

Persad-Bissessar listed the industries to be targeted.

These were: food processing and packaging, manufacture of basic medical supplies (such as saline, needles and bandages), manufacture of furniture (medical, office, home and school), manufacture of specialist chemicals for the energy and medical sectors, garment manufacturing, metal foundries, glass work, manufacturing household equipment, electronic assembly and e-waste recycling.

She spelt out how these businesses would be encouraged, especially by targeted tax-breaks to incentivise investors.

Persad-Bissessar promised a lower corporate tax rate, noting that in the United States it is 22 per cent. Such investors would pay no property tax, would have tax breaks on the cost of staff training, and enjoy write-offs on capital expenditure and investments in plant, machinery and building for 15 years.

She also proposed more customs duties on imported products that TT proposes to manufacture, explaining, “We have to protect our manufacturers. The rest of the world is doing it for their people. A UNC government will protect our manufacturers.”

She also promised to protect local manufacturers from the “major problem” of dumping of imported inferior foreign goods.

Otherwise she hit the Government for 187 murders in 124 days, including eight deaths in 24 hours, and vowed a no-confidence motion against Minister of National Security Edmund Dillon.

ORIGINAL STORY:

UNDER a future United National Congress (UNC) government, the East-West Corridor will become a growth-pole full of various light-manufacturing industries such as medical supplies and food processing, vowed Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar speaking at a UNC meeting on Monday at Caura Road, El Dorado.

She related that in 1945 the corridor had been the country's manufacturing and industrial hub from Arima to Port of Spain, attracting migration by job-seekers, but after the crash of 1986 many companies left the corridor leaving workers jobless.

"There is a highly educated and skilled workforce in place, they just need the jobs."

Persad-Bissessar listed the industries to be targeted.

She spelled out how these businesses would be encouraged, especially by targeted tax-breaks to incentivise investors, noting the corporate tax rate in the United States is 22 per cent.