PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - Prime Minister Stuart Young Friday said if his administration is returned to office following the April 28 general election, he will establish a ministry of implementation and efficiency.
Prime Minister Stuart Young speaking in La Brea on Friday (CMC Photo)Young, addressing the opening of a community center in La Brea, a town in southwestern Trinidad, said that the new ministry would be working out of the Office of the Prime Minister.
“For too long things get lost in abeyance and that ministry will have the ability, when as I as prime minister, say hey, see that deep water harbor, I need that done, when I need this done and ai need that done, that ministry will have the ability to go in and get the inefficiencies done across the system,” Young said.
Young, who was sworn into office last Monday and announced the date for the general election less than 24 hours later, said the ministry is intended “to break the bureaucracy within the confines of the law…and to get things done.
“Trinidad and Tobago deserves better, and if the opposition, which will still be in the opposition tries to stand in the way of constitutional review etc, that ministry of implementation and efficiency out of the Office of the Prime Minister, with me riding them and them riding everybody else, will get a lot done in that period”.
Young said that a new chapter would be unfolding in Trinidad and Tobago following the general election, intending to “break glass ceiling” that should not have existed.
“No one can change the past, we are all in charge of the present and we can all dream and have hope for the future,” he said, noting that a state of the art sporting facility will also be opened here on Friday.
“I continue to give you the commitment that as Prime Minister I will fight even harder…to ensure that we have a future for our children,” he said, as he made reference to the ongoing talks efforts to get the oil project with Venezuela off the ground, despite United States plans to withhold the necessary licenses.
He told the ceremony that he had intended to announce at least two other projects for the La Brea area, including “a start of the art project” which he did not identify.
“I am currently working on something, I though I could have burst the mark here today. I am currently negotiating and pushing for a start of the art project to be put down right here in La Brea.
“It is a project that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the Caribbean. It is a project that is going to be a facility that we are going to utilize your harbour….so people could ship, they could bring in etc…and give me the opportunity to deliver that to La Brea
“I am hoping by the end of the year, I will be back here turning the sod…for a facility that exists no where else in the CARICOM region and we are competing with other countries…I am looking forward to coming back here as your prime minister after April 28 and deliver that to La Brea.”
Young also said the government is also moving forward on the deep water Panama Green Docking facilities, which has been discussed for “long time.
“We are doing the work. It is the environmental laws that we have …and I keep saying those are academic conversations, we will protect the environment. Could you imagine
he intends to when we put down that deep water harbor and could do what we call Panama vessels, they are the largest vessels in the world and coming in right here in La Brea to be docked, serviced and people to get jobs”.
Young said that the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) is closer to providing the necessary document , adding “ I will fight” to make sure the project becomes a reality.
