Seven new ports for TT

And seven new sea ports, including a fishing port at Moruga, an oil service port at Guayaguayare and the new Port of Port-of-Spain at its new location, have also been identified as part of the Manning Administration’s development plans, Prime Minister, Patrick Manning, disclosed at the second anniversary celebrations of Trinidad Offshore Contractors (TOFCO), and completion of EOG Resources’ Oilbird Platform at the La Brea Industrial Estate, yesterday morning. He said given the continued expansion of the downstream energy industry, seven new ports were being “contemplated” for construction by early next year.

The new ports are expected to handle increased traffic generated from the Point Lisas Estate expansion, the Union Industrial Estate, the Cap-de-Ville Estate and the Oropouche Offshore Bank. Manning said a meeting of the Energy Committee also discussed the proposed polyprothene plant at Union Estate, and the placement of a US$65 million hydride plant and ethelene industry. “The Govern-ment views these plants as nodes of social development and will place these plants to those parts of the country which are economically depressed,” he said.

Manning observed that two committees, one under the chairmanship of Professor Kenneth S Julien and a Ministerial Committee headed by the Prime Minister, had been mandated to identify the new sites for every industrial estate, housing and other development projects. “This Government is about the development of the people and nothing more,” he said. Manning also observed since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, new regulations governing the movement of goods and services had made banking in the New York increasingly difficult.

He said this situation, coupled with TT’s increasing importance to the US market, provided an opportunity for Trinidad’s emergence as a new financial centre.

Questioned by reporters afterwards, Manning declined to elaborate on either the proposed ports or the financial services centre except to say that more details would be presented at a Prime Ministerial breakfast meeting at Paria Suites on July 7, 2006.

Asked about a possible replacement for the Trinity Cross, Manning reiterated that letters of appointment would soon be given to the committee mandated to come up with a replacement for the nation’s highest award. Meanwhile, in his welcoming statements, National Energy Corporation, (NEC), chairman, Prakash Saith, said detailed engineering studies had been undertaken by independent consultants to prove the suitability of the Union, Cap-de-Ville and Oropouche Offshore Bank as ‘suitable” industrial sites.

TOFCO is a joint venture company between Chet Morrison, (Louisiana), and Welfab (Trinidad) Limited.