'No benefit from Kamla's $15m India trip'

File photo: Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar during her contribution to the 2019 budget debate. PHOTO BY ROGER JACOB
File photo: Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar during her contribution to the 2019 budget debate. PHOTO BY ROGER JACOB

UPDATE:

Public Administration Minister Marlene Mc Donald has slammed Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar for saying the People’s National Movement (PNM) Government, in its three years in office, has not brought any direct foreign investment or new income streams to TT.
In a fiery contribution to the budget debate on Friday in the House of Representatives, Mc Donald reminded members of Persad-Bissessar’s trip to India as prime minister shortly after the People’s Partnership assumed office in 2010.

She claimed the PP government had spent over $15 million during the trip, which did not redound to “one cent of direct foreign investment” for TT.

“I heard the member for Siparia say we have not brought in one single cent of direct foreign investment. But I recall in either 2013 or 2014, because I spoke about it in the budget, that there was whole crew, Madam Speaker (Bridgid Annisette George). They went off to India, they spent over $15 million.” Mc Donald, who described Persad-Bissessar’s budget reply as “vacuous” and “meandering,” claimed the trip involved personnel from more than six ministries.

“They went with a whole plane load, went off to India. I remember well because I was pivotal in that debate.”

She further claimed Persad-Bissessar had said at the time that she engaged in over 200 meetings “but not one cent of direct foreign investment came back in this country. “Check the Hansard. That is your record,” Mc Donald declared.

“And, today, we are being told and even scolded that we have not brought in any foreign direct investment.”

The Port of Spain South MP revisited the India visit whilst responding Persad-Bissessar’s statement, in her budget reply, that the PNM would preside over five years of budget deficits.
Mc Donald said: “But, I want the member for Siparia, in her ramblings, to understand that for five years, we got deficit budgets. Five years from the other side. Every single year.”
She read out the statistics of the PP’s deficit budgets. (See table)

Mc Donald argued while deficit financing was a common practice worldwide “you cannot be running deficits every single year.
“You must be able at some point in time to come out off it gradually and they did no such thing. Now, I was appalled to day to hear the member for Siparia so very concerned about the small man budget.
“By running these heavy deficits each year the difference was made up by borrowing. They borrowed as if it was going out of style.”

Referring to her Government’s budget theme, Turnaround, Mc Donald said she also was heartened to see that the International Monetary Fund had given the country a positive outlook.
“It is a small milestone but we have achieved a lot over the last three years.”

However, she quickly added: “I am still heavy because we could have done much better had it not been for those five years when there was spending and spending. I should say five years and 90 days of the disastrous rule of the former government.”

Mc Donald said TT must never forget the PP’s fiscal responsibility.

“We must never forget their disregard for basic laws. The result of this fiscal irresponsibility, Madam Speaker, is that they spent over $400 billion on what?”

Budget deficits under PP
2011
Expenditure — $49b
Revenue–$41.3b
Deficit–$7.7b

2012
Expenditure–$54.6b
Revenue–$47b
Deficit–$7.6b

2013
Expenditure–$58.4b
Revenue–$50.7b
Deficit–$7.7b

2014
Expenditure–$61.2b
Revenue–$55b
Deficit– $6.4b

2015
Expenditure–$63.7b
Revenue–$60.4b
Deficit–$3.4b

ORIGINAL STORY:

Public Administration Minister Marlene Mc Donald has slammed Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar for saying the People’s National Movement (PNM) Government, in its three years in office, has not brought any direct foreign investment to TT.

In a fiery contribution to the budget debate on Friday in the House of Representatives, Mc Donald reminded members of Persad-Bissessar’s trip to India as prime minister shortly after the People’s Partnership assumed office in 2010.

She claimed the PP Government had spent over $15 million during the trip which did not redound to “one cent of direct foreign investment” for TT.

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