PM Manning: No boom in TT

Manning made the comment on Friday night at a function in which he was honoured by constituency members of his parliamentary district of San Fernando East.

Speaking to a crowd of some 1,500 well-wishers gathered at the ballroom at Paria Suites, La Romaine, Manning insisted that the term “boom” was not descriptive of an economic upturn which the country was experiencing.

Manning said, “What we are experiencing today is not a ‘boom.’

“A ‘boom’ suggests that some peculiar circumstances arise that gives you a temporary increase in economic activity. But the economic activities that we are witnessing in TT today are by no means temporary.”

Manning said that the complex nature of the country’s resources ensures the oil and gas “will be with us for a very long time.”

He recalled that the oil boom of ’70s came to an abrupt end after developed countries sought alternative fuels in coal and nuclear energy, and put critical restrictions in place to make motor cars and appliances more energy efficient. This strategy, Manning said, was so that developed countries decrease their demand for energy, “so that they could break the boom. And the strategy worked.”

Manning explained however, that strategy could not work in today’s world which is controlled by consumers’ strength of supply and demand, and since fuels alternative to oil could not measure up to major health and environmental considerations.

“Let me assure you that we (the Government) will continue to work in the interest of our country and in the interest of developing TT,” he told the audience.