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Speaker:The Honourable Basdeo Panday, Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago
Date: May 21, 2000
Occasion: Address at the Sugar and Energy Festival 2000 at Gilbert Park, Couva, Trinidad.
Ladies and Gentlemen;
My dear Friends;
My Brothers and Sisters:
This is an occasion for celebration.
And we have much to celebrate.
The Sugar and Energy Festival is growing from strength to strength.
Soca and Chutney;
Steelband and Tassa;
Sport and Culture;
Art and Science and Technology;
Because of the Sugar and Energy Festival, all is coming together in a curry-calalloo that can only happen in one country in the world, Sweet T. and T.
Never mind the challenges we face.
Never mind the divisions some people are trying to create, this nation is moving forward with increasing momentum.
The $7 Billion LNG expansion was a jump-start, this year, to economic growth.
The close to $2 Billion C. L. Financial Caribbean Nitrogen Company project is a good sweetener.
There is more to celebrate, my brothers and sisters;
We are looking at the construction of an Aluminum Smelter, at last.
And we are looking at a new $2 BILLION GTL PLANT to produce Jet Fuels, Naphtha, Clean Diesel, Industrial Oils and Paraffins.
The formalisation of design and construction contracts for this new GTL Plant is scheduled for two weeks time.
The first GTL train will produce 1,000 jobs in a 3 three year timeline.
The developers envisage continuing expansion of this GTL Plant to as many as ten trains.
Every one of these projects, every new project, is a vote of confidence in the Government and the people and the future of Trinidad and Tobago.
It�s getting better and better in our energy sector.
Since 1995, natural gas reserves have increased by some 200 per cent.
Natural Gas production has more than doubled since 1995.
There�s more, my friends;
Other new projects under development include:
A $6 Billion Ethylene Complex
A $2 Billion Methanol Plant
And another $4.5 Billion project in the energy sector is currently being negotiated.
Things are better now, much better than in 1995.
And there is still better to come.
Not everyone will celebrate these successes, my Brothers and Sisters.
Great news for the people of Trinidad and Tobago is always bad news for certain persons.
We cannot help that.
Those are the people Kitchener must have had in mind when he sang:
"Sitting on River Bank and talking the River bad,
Is a thing they does do here in Trinidad".
That is happening today, people bad talking the country to the rest of the world.
But, as somebody has said, "there ain�t no stopping us now, my Brothers and Sisters.
Trinidad and Tobago is moving on.
Come next year, this Sugar and Energy Festival will have even more to celebrate.
I promise you that.
Onward now, with the celebration.
Onward, after that, with renewed determination that we will not allow anybody to turn back the clock on a country that is moving forward and picking up speed, as Trinidad and Tobago takes off like a jet in the new century.
Thank you, my Brothers and Sisters and God bless you all.