NEWS
Customs Under Fire – JSC puts gun entry through legal ports in its sights
With most of this year's 555 murders executed by illegal firearms, the Customs and Excise Division was grilled over the influx of these weapons mostly via lawful ports of entry, at a sitting of Parliament's Joint Select Committee (JSC) on National Security on Wednesday. The JSC heard of the division's ongoing constraints that had led to just 3,998 shipping containers being inspected out of 23,000 imported into TT in January-August. An alarmed acting Commissioner of Police Mc Donald Jacob said 116 sub-machine-gun guns and rifles were among the 626 firearms seized by the police this year. Read more here
Govt, TTPS not convinced northbound lane was an option to ease congestion near Caroni River on Tuesday
Both the Government and the TTPS are adamant there was no need to open the northbound lane of the Uriah Butler Highway (UBH) on Tuesday to ease congestion caused by traffic gridlock. Thousands of commuters heading to east, central and south Trinidad didn’t get to their homes until three to as much as five hours after leaving their destinations. The situation was created after police were forced to close off one of the three lanes on the UBH after water from the flood-ravaged Caroni plains settled on the roadway just after the flyover near the Caroni Bird Sanctuary, making driving through it dangerous for motorists. The gridlock set social media abuzz. Read more here
Politics
PNM Tobago West chairman: Zipline was PDP's 'silver bullet'
Chairman of the PNM Tobago West Constituency Kurt Salandy is convinced the controversial zipline issue was the “silver bullet” which shot the Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) into winner's circle in the December 6 Tobago House of Assembly (THA) elections. Salandy gave his view while speaking on the Minority Report on Tuesday evening on the Tobago Updates programme. In 2015, former tourism secretary Tracy Davidson-Celestine announced the plan to build a 1.5km zipline in the Main Ridge Forest Reserve, saying a company called OCT Enterprises had been contracted. The project was never delivered, despite THA funds being released. Read more here
THA denied license to export aggregate
The Studley Park Enterprise Limited (SPEL), a subsidiary of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) charged with the production of andesite rock was denied the rights to an export licence by the Minerals Advisory Committee. This is according to Infrastructure Secretary Trevor James as he spoke on a local television morning programme. James said there was a significant demand for Tobago’s rock in Guyana. He said the company was readying itself to capitalise on this and other revenue-generating opportunities, when its efforts were stymied by the statutory body. “This is one of the attempts by the State in Trinidad and the government in Trinidad to constrain Tobago’s ability to self-actualise, to increase our revenue; and therefore to limit what we can do as a government in Tobago, and that is all that this is. They sit in Parliament and Ministries and determine that our Tobago resources are theirs and they must determine what happens to it. And that is the conversation that should be overtaking Tobago as we move into the New Year in this push to autonomy again. Who in Tobago supports this?” Read more here
BUSINESS
Langston Roach builds legacy of black enterprise
In TT in the late 1960s and early '70s, despite independence, it wasn’t largely believed that an Afro-Trinidadian had the acumen to run a business, hold positions of corporate power or even a managerial position. This was how Langston Roach Industries chairman, Langston Roach, now an inductee in the TT Chamber of Industry and Commerce Business Hall of Fame, saw the environment at the start of his journey as an entrepreneur. In Roach’s acceptance speech at the Chamber’s Champions of Business award ceremony on November 24, he told the audience this perception was one of the things he wanted to dispel. Read more here
IDB Country Rep: T&T has competitive advantage to become green hydrogen hub
T&T can be a green hydrogen hub in the region as it is well poised, says Carina Cockburn, country representative for the InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB). The IDB collaborated with the National Energy Corporation of T&T on a green hydrogen study and roadmap for this country. Speaking at the launch at the Hilton Hotel yesterday, Cockburn said while green hydrogen is not a new product and electrolysis is not a new process, green hydrogen, however, is becoming cost effective to produce as a result of innovations in the generation of renewable energy. In fact, over the last ten years there has been a decline in the cost of production not only for solar and onshore wind generation but also for offshore wind as well, Cockburn explained. Read more here
REGIONAL
More roads, keeping electricity cost low among $44.44B in funds requested
Another $6.6 billion to provide additional resources for electricity arrears to the Guyana Power & Light (GPL), $1 billion for operational expenses at the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) and $18 billion for the upgrading of roads and bridges are among the expenditures in a $44.44 billion supplementary budget request made by government. Financial Paper 3 of 2022 was laid before the National Assembly on Wednesday by Senior Minister with responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC), Liliendaal. Financial Paper 2 of 2022, a schedule of contingency fund advances on current and capital expenditures totalling $2.904 billion for the period 15 August to 29 November, was also tabled. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
Ex-FTX boss Bankman-Fried: 'I didn't try to commit fraud'
Sam Bankman-Fried, the former boss of collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has denied committing fraud. Making his first public appearance since the collapse, the man once hailed as the 'King of Crypto' told The New York Times he had had a "bad month" and had almost no money left. FTX fell apart last month, having once been valued at $32bn (£26.5bn). Many investors have not been able to withdraw their funds from the now bankrupt global exchange. Mr Bankman-Fried, 30, also said his lawyers had advised him not to speak publicly, but he had ignored them. He denied having moved any personal money out of FTX himself - saying he now has "close to nothing." Read more here
1st December 2022