Manning upbeat about political unity and LNG

PRIME MINISTER Patrick Manning was optimistic of progress being made today in Antigua on regional political unity and an arrangement for Trinidad and Tobago to supply  Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to Jamaica.

Speaking with reporters following the swearing-in of former NFM chairman Christine Sahadeo as a junior finance minister at President’s House, Manning said today’s meeting forms part of the work of a five-member prime ministerial sub-committee formed during the 14th Inter-Sessional Caricom Heads of Government summit held earlier this year in Port-of-Spain to deal with “issues of governance in the Caribbean” and this sub-committee is chaired by St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves. Recalling discussions between himself and Gonsalves on the issue of regional political integration and a possible political union between this country and St Vincent, the Prime Minister stated: “All that is on the table.” Manning said Jamaican Prime Minister PJ Patterson is another member of the Caricom sub-committee and he will take the opportunity to continue discussions with Patterson about shipping LNG from the Atlantic LNG (ALNG) plant in Point Fortin to Jamaica.

He was optimistic that his talks with the Jamaican PM would “set the stage for advance in those negotiations and discussions.” Prime Minister Manning told a post-Cabinet news conference at Whitehall last Thursday that the supply of LNG to Jamaica was not contingent on the construction of ALNG’s fourth Train and Government was optimistic that Train Four would become a reality in the near future. Asked whether he had already selected which of his three junior finance ministers would eventually replace him as Finance Minister, Manning replied: “Prime Ministers do not operate in that way. Everybody is given an equal chance and at the end of the day,when decisions have to be made, you make the best decision in accordance with your best judgment.”  Noting that today is Mother’s Day, Manning said his wife, Education Minister Hazel Manning, will be accompanying him to Antigua. “I didn’t think I could properly leave her home on such a day,” he said with a smile. Observing that many mothers in Trinidad and Tobago today assume the role of  “mother and father,” the Prime Minister extended Mother’s Day greetings to the national community.