Burgeoning Couva moves for city status

And whatever is its desire, Ken Valley, the Minister of Industry and Commerce, will make every effort to “ensure that its objective is achieved.”

Valley, himself a life member of the chamber, was delivering the feature address at the Chamber’s seminar on “Couva’s Development Plan” at Plipdeco House on Friday.

Valley heard from several firms and organisations about their plans for the future (NEC, NGC, the EMBDC, and the Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo Regional Corporation), and he was more than impressed with the fact that “Couva is on a growth path that is unprecedented in the history of the country.”

He said there was evidence that “the commercial sector would improve beyond imagination and Couva, in fact Central, is going to move forward at an unbelievable rate.”

Valley said that over the next few years it would not be easy to recognise Couva because of the increase in housing and agricultural plots in Central Trinidad.

He spoke about the establishment of a town centre in the area to be built by Government and said it would be a boom to the district when completed. He also noted that a business development company would be established and that their proposals for growth and expansion should be brought to Government early. He said the business development company should be made up of all the stakeholders in the district and should also include the Estate Management Business Development Company (EMBDC).

The minister recommended that “accountability and transparency must be your watchwords in terms of your operations.”

Utharo Rao, managing director of EMBDC said that housing lots and agricultural plots would soon be distributed to former sugar workers of Caroni (1975) Ltd with all the built-in infrastructure and the overall cost of the project was estimated to cost some $500 million. He felt the agricultural plots would in the long run be able to reduce the food import bill in the country.

Chamber president Ashmeer Mohamed welcomed the gathering and said that “discussion on the future developmental plans of Couva was a crucial issue for Central Trinidad, and he was pleased that minister Ken Valley was present to air his views on the progress that was sure to take place in this part of Trinidad.” Feroz khan, past president of the Chamber, gave a documentary review of plans that were on the drawing board for Couva for the last ten years and was pleased to see the gathering that was present to take part in the up-to-date proposals moreso as the country had much of the resources ‘‘to make it happen.”