Billions could come after Summit

This was the view expressed yesterday by Ambassador Luis Alberto Rodriguez, Coordinator of the National Secretariat which is organising this summit and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). “On April 20, if we do this right I assure you that TT will have so many opportunities that I hope we are ready for it,” Rodriguez told business persons attending a TT Chamber of Industry and Commerce luncheon in Westmoorings yesterday. After making this point, Rodriguez declared, “There is no such thing of closing down the port (of Port-of- Spain) for two weeks.”

Ambassador Rodriguez agreed with Prime Minister Patrick Manning that “every host country of these international conferences has reported foreign direct investment in the aftermath of these meetings.” He said Malta received approximately $1 billion in foreign direct investment after it hosted the CHOGM in Valletta from November 25 to 27, 2005. Rodriguez added that Uganda, which hosted the last CHOGM in 2007 and where TT was announced as the host of this year’s CHOGM, also received some foreign investment after that meeting. “On April 20, if we do this right I assure you that TT will have so many opportunities that I hope we are ready for it,” Rodriguez declared.