Abdulah slams PM’s diversification comments

Political leader of the Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) David Abdulah is chastising the Prime Minister for recent comments about the diversification of Trinidad and Tobago’s economy.

On August 17, while giving a feature address at the sod-turning ceremony for the new Desperadoes pan theatre on Nelson Street, Port of Spain, the PM lamented that some efforts at diversification by past PNM governments had failed after a change of government.

The PM was referring to projects like the $44 million Labidco Estate, aluminium smelters and the eTeck park at Tamana.

But in the wake of recent floods, Abdulah is calling on the government to invest in climate adaptation measures which can also help diversify the economy.

In a virtual MSJ press conference on Sunday, Abdulah said, “When he was talking about diversification, he was very critical of people who were against certain projects of his PNM governments and previous PNM governments.

“He spoke about foolish Trinidadians blocking the country’s diversification.

“Editorials commented subsequently referring to the PM’s statement itself as being foolish and we (the MSJ) agree with that.”

Abdulah said the topic of diversifying TT’s economy isn’t new.

So he disagreed with the PM’s stance that a few unsuccessful projects undermined the country’s economic diversification.

Instead, Abdulah said the PM should look at economic diversification from other perspectives.

Abdulah said the MSJ released a covid19 roadmap to recovery plan in May 2020 in which the topic of investing in climate adaptation was addressed.

“The MSJ proposed many years ago, and we stated it in our roadmap to recovery…that there be a national development fund, a national infrastructure fund, a national construction fund – call it what you may – to ensure that we could deal with the impacts of climate change.”

With TT only becoming more vulnerable to extreme weather and floods, owing to climate change, Abdulah said the country must take climate adaptation seriously.

To become more adaptive to climate change, especially floods, Abdulah is calling for an investment in proper drainage.

Apart from this, he said there needs to be better monitoring of hillside development. During hillside development projects, natural vegetation is removed which can lead to more surface runoff.

This increases the volume of water in watercourses below and the probability of floods.

“We’ve detailed how that (climate adaptive measures) could be financed through bond issues to soak up some of the excess capital that is called the economics of liquidity in the banking sector, because there are billions of dollars in the banks that are not be utilised for any investment purposes.

“We should find ways of linking that idle capital, idle money, and investing it in projects that will ensure greater sustainability.”

While Abdulah thinks the government should invest in making public infrastructure climate-resilient, he says the same must also be done for homes.

Climate-adaptation measures for homes, especially in the Caribbean, which is prone to hurricanes, include things like proper roofing.

“These are things that we have to be proactive on, and this could create tremendous employment, utilising small and corporate businesses in the communities, so that the wealth remains in communities, rather than giving out the work to big contractors for big contractors to make money.

“All of that (investing in climate adaptation) would have helped diversify our economy and have people employed in a very real and tangible way.”