George wants India help develop Tobago

President of the Tobago Chamber of Commerce Martin George has challenged new Indian High Commissioner to TT Arun Kumar Sahu to establish to a sub-office on the island.

"I would like to see the High Commissioner of India become the first diplomatic mission accredited to Trinidad and Tobago which opens a sub-office in Tobago," George said in brief remarks on Wednesday, at a cocktail reception to welcome Sahu to Tobago at the Magdalena Grand Beach & Golf Resort, Lowlands.

"There is tremendous potential for that, tremendous potential for cultural exchanges, business exchanges, development of business ideas in Tobago."

He added it will serve as an incubator for even greater developmental opportunities and exchanges between the two countries.

George, an attorney, urged Sahu to not see Tobago as an appendage or an addendum to Trinidad.

"See Tobago as being the head. The head is sometimes the smallest part of the body but it has all the brain.

"So, that is what I want you to see Tobago as, having that potential that you can work with, you can develop and you can now treat with it as an incubator and a place where you can now show a model for what development even in a small island state can be."

Addressing an audience which included Chief Secretary Kelvin Charles, religious leaders and businessmen, George said islands are not measured just by their physical or geographical size or by their population.

"You are measured by the strength of the will. The strength of the people. The mental strength. The determination to succeed in very much the same way that the Mahatma (Gandih) stood as one against the might of the British empire was able to bring about that change.

"I invite you, of the Indian High Commission, to look at Tobago and treat it as an opportunity to bring about a change that would bring miracles for Trinidad and Tobago."

George said just as late Indian activist Ghandi, revered for his philosophy of non-violence, was an agent of change, so, too, must Sahu leave his imprint in Tobago.

"Mahatma Ghandi was an agent of change. He was tiny in stature but he was powerful in his ability to bring about development, improvement and change.

"In the same way, I look upon our new High Commissioner as being an agent of change where he can leave his mark on Trinidad and more, importantly, on Tobago."

Sahu took up duties as Indian High Commissioner to TT on September 5.