A continuation of last year's budget. Too vague. Disappointing. Those were some reactions from business chambers in south Trinidad to yesterday's national budget presentation. President of the Point Fortin South Western Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Nigel Minors, said there was a deafening silence on the $7.5 billion Point?Fortin to San Fernando Highway and the Point Fortin Hospital. He added: "We are pretty much concerned about the lack of information on the Point Fortin Hospital. "He spoke about embarking on the construction of the hospital in 2013 but we heard that two years ago."
Minors said no mention was made about the highway which the chamber had been clamouring for over several years. Another major concern, he said, was that nothing was said about small and medium-size enterprises which comprise the majority of businesses in the Point Fortin area. "All he said is that he knows there is a lot of issues and they are working on a programme but that is not good enough," Minors added. However, he was pleased the Government had finally listened to the chamber's recommendation for a La Brea port. "But we did not get any details in terms of the timeframe and capacity," he said.
Although she did not hear the budget in its entirety, Rio Claro chamber president Beatrice Bridgelal said what she heard sounded like a continuation of the last budget. For instance the Clico fiasco seems to be a permanent fixture in the budget now. "They not giving it any closure," she added. With regard to agriculture, she said most of it was too vague. "It sounds like a continuation of last year's budget," she said. Penal Chamber president Sahid Hosein said: "For us who have heard budget after budget basically it is the same thing." However, he was surprised it was bigger than last year's.