PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC -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.
Young, addressing the opening of a community center in La Brea, a town in southwestern Trinidad, said that the new ministry would be based in 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 a need that done, that ministry will have the ability to go in and get the inefficiencies done across the system,” Young said.
Young, 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, ries 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 a new chapter would unfold in Trinidad and Tobago following the general election, intending to “break the 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 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, referring to the ongoing talks to get the oil project with Venezuela off the ground despite the 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 thought I could have burst the mark here today. I am presently negotiating and pushing for the 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 will be a facility that we will utilize your harbor….so people could ship, they could bring in, etc..…and allow me 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 nowhere else in the CARICOM region, and we are competing with other countries…I look forward to returning here as your prime minister after April 28 and delivering that to La Brea.”
Young also said the government is moving forward on the deep-water Panama Green Docking facilities, which have been discussed for a “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’s vessels. They are the largest vessels in the world and come 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 ensure the project becomes a reality.
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