Dookeran leads cabinet team in discussions on Tobago's economic future

Finance Minister Winston Dookeran led a five-member cabinet team that held discussions in Tobago wednesday with a delegation from the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) headed by Chief Secretary Orville London.

The private discusssions focused on the way forward for Tobago’s economy. 

Dookeran told reporters at a media briefing Tobago is linked very deeply with the Trinidad economy. When “we talk about Tobago, we talk about the economy of Trinidad and Tobago” he said. 

Dookeran said the meeting discussed an action plan to deal with solving several economic problems that the island faces. “We do so against the background of a need for the deepening of the dialogue and a paradigm shift in thinking with respect to Tobago’s development,” he said.

He added, “Those paradigm shifts are reflected in our view that we must redirect the Tobago’s development from being a status approach to one that is market driven, and secondly one that is within to one which exploits the global opportunities available to it in the new world in which we live.” 

Dookeran said the meeting looked at five areas, including:

• A strategy to “de-risk” the financing of the Tobago tourism industry
• the synergy required in the planning process
• the airlift and the marketing strategy for which action was required
• the foreign investment environment

The minister said a technical team has been appointed to determine a specific action plan to shape the future development of Tobago in the context of Trinidad and Tobago’s development. 

London told reporters the discussions dealt with issues at two levels—an urgent or survival level and a developmental level. He said stakeholders recognised the need for a relationship between what is needed to be done in the short term and how that was linked to medium and long term initiatives.

London also said there was consensus on the need for a more efficient air service to the island noting that it is an issue "we have to treat urgently and decisively."