Duke: Invest in $4b plan for city of Roxborough

Ten zones have been outlined in a blueprint for a city of Roxborough presented by THA Deputy Chief Secretary Watson Duke.

The plan, which includes an airport, marina complex, free-trade zone and a medical tourism complex, is estimated to cost over $4 billion.

Duke, the electoral representative for Roxborough/ Argyle, was delivering the feature address during the Caribbean Diaspora Investment Forum's Invest Tobago townhall meeting at the Brooklyn Museum, New York, on Monday.

Duke said the city of Roxborough has been in the making since 2015, when he entered the political arena as an independent candidate. Duke, the political leader of the Progressive Democratic Patriots, led his party to a 14-one victory in last December's Tobago House of Assembly elections.

“Now we are in office. Quickly I got into office, I went back to the people of Roxborough and I said to them: 'We do not want a town any more...Roxborough was always a shanty town, not the real town, and so I am saying we have passed that stage and now we are going to build a city.'”

Zone one of the project entails a light manufacturing and free-trade zone. Zone two would be a civic centre and zone three would feature a medical tourism complex. In zone four, there would be the Kendall Agricultural Institute with 100 acres of farmland. A boardwalk would be in zone five and an airport, aviation and maritime institute are planned for zone six. Zone seven would be a causeway.

“The cost of the light manufacturing zone is US$60 million and free-trade zone is US$4 million. The civic centre – US$9 million, the medical tourism complex – US$88 million The Kendall Agriculture Institute, that is about US$44 million. The Roxborough boardwalk – that’s about US$7.5 million. We have the airport, aviation and maritime institute – that is about US$117 million. All these were average costs.”

The causeway, he said, is very extensive and would cost almost US$300 million. Zone eight would be a marina which would cost approximately US$72 million.

“The money sounds small but it is in US (dollars) – multiply that by ten just to make sure you get the figure correct.”

Zone nine, he said, would be the marina bay islands, with housing in zone ten.

Duke said there are naysayers who believe the city of Roxborough is an unrealistic dream. However, he urged them to compare it to Singapore in the 1960s. He said that island has exceeded its expectations.

“It can be done,” he said adding that the human resource remains the most important asset to achieving the goals.

He called on the diaspora to use its resources.

“There are a lot of educated people out here, there are a lot of technically astute people out here – we need to return home and build our country. We need to put Tobago first. We need to make Tobago work.”

He said Singapore “may be twice the size of Tobago, with about 5.5 million people." Tobago's last recorded population was 60,000.

He said the proposal needs the full support of the diaspora. Acknowledging the money
for such a project may not be available, he said, “If we want to build a Tobago that is economically vibrant, that can pursue its own thing, we need to start speaking up and we need to start speaking up now.”

According to a social media post by THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine, Duke's itinerary began on Monday with the diaspora in the Tri-State area with 48 participants at the townhall meeting. On Wednesday, he is expected to attend the THA Business Breakfast Forum with Caribbean Chamber of Commerce at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and on Friday the TT Consulate hosts the Tobago Entrepreneurs Association.