Chaguanas Chamber wants lower food prices

In its 2006/2007 Budget proposals, the Chamber said food prices must be an issue which Government cannot afford to ignore. The Chamber devoted the majority of its proposals to ways to boost domestic agricultural production from in-creased subsidies to farmers to the privatisation of Namdevco with an annual subvention from Government.

Stating that no net development will take place if the nation’s crime problem is not addressed, the Cha-mber called for the establishment of an independent, private sector-run statistical unit to publish national crime statistics instead of the Police Service. The Chamber claimed that under the present system, there are concerns that the statistics are being “doctored” to make the Government and Police Service look good.

Given the rapid pace of development in Chaguanas, the Chamber said there must be a decentralisation of government ministries to Chagua-nas. The Chamber called for the establishment of a major hospital in Cen-tral Trinidad and greater funding for the Chaguanas Borough Corporation.

The Chamber said Government should privatise BWIA to at least 51 percent and the airline should be properly restructured to ensure its viability. The Chamber said State ownership is no longer a tenable doctrine for BWIA.