A blow to TT

On April 5, bpTT announced on its website that local fabrication of the Angelin offshore platform would not take place in TT due to “compressed project timelines and other competitiveness factors.” “Although the Angelin platform will not be fabricated in Trinidad, bpTT is committed to maintaining an option of fabrication in-country for future platforms and will be working with local service providers on key competitiveness factors such as productivity,” bpTT stated.

But interviewed yesterday, Hosein said the decision to locate the platform abroad and not in locally represented “the loss of an industry and not just an opportunity.” “An opportunity such as Angelin would have bought hundreds of jobs directly and perhaps thousands indirectly to the La Brea area and would have pumped significant amounts of resources into the La Brea area at a point in time when the State would not be able to provide these resources itself,” he said.

“This to me is a tremendous blow to the economic welfare of Trinidad and Tobago and when next a platform will be built in Trinidad, one does not know,” he said.

“Also the fact that Trinidad may have developed a bad reputation on account of losing this particular platform may not augur well for the prospects of Trinidad and Tobago in gaining any opportunities that may emerge from Guyana or Suriname to build platforms because our labour market in this segment of the economy may be seen as disruptive and uncompetitive and that to me is the externalities aspect of this whole falloff from the Angelin project going abroad,” Hosein said.

He said the tripartite body which comprised the State, the trade union movement and the business sector should work towards the creation of a more conducive industrial relations environment as the economy could not afford to be losing such valuable investment as the diversification thrust in the other sectors did “not seem to be working.” He said government should attempt to renegotiate with bpTT to have the fabrication of the Angelin platform return to Trinidad and Tobago.

“I think if it is possible at this point in time the State should intervene and try to negotiate with bpTT to change its decision because the people of La Brea, which carries one of the highest unemployment rates and one of the higher poverty levels in the country, will be seriously affected,” he said.

Economist Indera Sagewan-Alli, however, said while she agreed with JTUM leader Ancel Roget that a safe industrial relations environment was essential she noted that trade union leaders should be careful that the “wrong message” was not being sent to the international community regarding Trinidad and Tobago’s industrial climate.

“We really have to be extremely careful and extremely cautious in terms of the kinds of signals that they send, not just the domestic space but the international space because we are in an environment where exploration is critical and exploration is facilitated largely through multi-national companies, global companies and bpTT is just one of them that has been here for a very long time and has vested interest,” she said.

“But what about all those companies that they are trying to attract and if the message that we are sending to foreign direct investment is that the industrial climate in Trinidad and Tobago is not prepared to be cooperative, is not prepared to negotiate, then it is the wrong signal we are sending and we can’t afford that.” Sagewan-Alli warned that jobs will be lost.

“The very people that Mr Roget is attempting to protect could be on the breadline as a consequence of the impact that statements like these can have.”