Dragon shows lack of diversification

THE EDITOR: The current speculation over the fate of the Dragon gas project illustrates TT’s desperate economic circumstances. The nation would not have been on tenterhooks about the future of the lucrative energy field if the PNM government had diversified the economy, as it had promised.

Monetising the Dragon gas acreage is the only short-to-medium-term venture that can lift our country from its deficit budgets and extensive borrowings and improve the declining quality of life.

The government must take responsibility for this disturbing state of affairs. The PNM got into national office on a fervent commitment to stir other economic sectors into increased productivity and export-earning capacity. Almost ten years later this has not taken place, even as crude oil and natural gas production are at their critically lowest levels ever.

The fallout has been far and wide and includes the worsening foreign exchange crunch. The Prime Minister and other senior ministers have issued annual promises mixed with a cocktail of finger-pointing and excuses. The upshot of that inaction is that the region’s one-time most envied economy is limping, relying on loans, fire sales of taxpayer assets, imposition of higher taxes, and cutbacks on essential benefits.

And if another PNM administration is elected, the circumstances will deteriorate.

Our energy installations have become white elephants, and there is an annual net outflow of investors for the first time in a generation. The food import bill has almost doubled since Kamla Persad-Bissessar demitted office, imposing a further burden on scarce foreign exchange.

Thousands of fertile acres of land in the Caroni Plains and elsewhere have been allocated to other purposes while the government has sidetracked the agricultural sector. Ironically, the government is party to a Caricom plan that aims to reduce the region’s annual food import bill by 25 per cent by the end of the year.

Most countries are meeting their respective food-producing commitments. But, under the PNM, TT’s food production and agro-processing have fallen. Manufacturing, shipbuilding and repairs, the finance sector, the food and beverage industry, and other fields were identified years ago as planks for economic diversification.

Under the national leadership of Persad-Bissessar, there were measurable advances, all of which have been reversed over the past decade.

So, all of TT’s eggs are in a single basket, which is at the mercy of international political and economic capers.

We all hope that the Dragon gas project is not crippled by the Donald Trump-Nicolás Maduro conflict, because the financial impact on average citizens would be catastrophic. But the harsh reality is that the venture may become a casualty of the US-Venezuela dispute.

TT did not have to be in this calamitous state. Competent and visionary leadership would have enabled the utilisation of all relevant national resources to boost alternative economic sectors.

The fact that our nation must now cross our fingers for Dragon gas is a testimony to an inept and bungling administration.

This outgoing government will be defined by its wrecking of a successful economy, leading to the hope and prayer that Dragon gas bears fruit.

DR RISHAD SEECHERAN

MP, Caroni East