Rowley: Trinidad and Tobago can’t continue to depend on oil $

THE Prime Minister said on Tuesday people need to get real about government revenues, as he warned that cars will in due course be designed without internal combustion engines (which use gasoline, produced from crude oil, on which Trinidad and Tobago’s economy heavily relies, along with natural gas).

Dr Rowley said people should not await funding from the Government's oil and gas revenues but instead act to help to diversify the economy, as diversification into fresh areas was now urgently needed.

He gave the feature address at the sod-turning ceremony for the new Desperadoes pan theatre on Nelson Street, Port of Spain, which he hoped would be the basis of an entertainment hub as a prong of such diversification.

"I want you to understand the reality of the days ahead," he said, warning that US car manufacturer General Motors had said it would stop making internal combustion engines in 15 years. Asking what kind of world would exist by that time, he predicted such changes in vehicles could be as similar to those seen when the horse and buggy was replaced by motor cars.

He urged people to stop merely talking about diversification and instead start to act on it.

Rowley said in the past TT had exported agricultural produce such as grapefruit, while later on the Point Lisas Industrial Estate had been so successful that it was today known globally as the TT model.

However, he lamented that some efforts at diversification by past PNM governments had failed after a change of government, including the $44 million Labidco Estate, aluminium smelters –after hundreds of millions had been spent to try to establish them – and the eTeck park at Tamana.

He also lamented opposition to the Sandals resort intended for Tobago (the Sandals company eventually withdrew its proposal).

However, Rowley said with a city as an economic engine for a nation, he had high hopes for the Desperadoes theatre, which he said was "an investment in our people."

He hoped the Desperadoes would invite other steelbands to hold concerts at the site, which he said would become "the real mecca of the steelband in the world."

If performances could be held three times a day, both foreigners and locals would flock there, allowing revenues to be earned from admission charges and the sale of food. He hoped the private sector would add to the theatre to create a wider entertainment district in the area.

The PM also hoped that in a decade from now Port of Spain would be unrecognisable, half-jokingly saying people would then have to ask permission to enter.

However, recalling that some consumer co-operatives in the past had attracted self-seeking individuals who had ruined these groups, Rowley warned Desperadoes members to have their affairs run by capable and honest people.

Relating how Invaders steelband had once sourced junior players for its Panorama line-up, the PM advised that the Desperadoes theatre should be made safe and secure, especially for girls.

"If you meet that yardstick, you'll secure the future of this facility."

He asked Desperadoes members to note that the $14 million cost of the theatre was coming from taxpayers including the widow, the businessman and people who did not play pan.

Rowley said success at the Desperadoes theatre would lead to success everywhere.