There is some fundamental planning that's necessary for a nation to progress. These long-term strategies must incorporate infrastructure development, maintenance and economic planning. Over the years many writers, including myself, have made suggestions that can be incorporated into a national plan. These ought to be accepted by politicians from both sides of the aisle. The major difference should be the ability to implement the necessary changes.
It is unacceptable that there is no long-term strategy to rid our nation of temporary labour programmes like Cepep and URP when most will agree that incorporating the workers into permanent local government jobs and community work like road and pipe maintenance is the way to go. No nation can progress with unplanned communities being built by private and government contractors without planned upgrade to the water and power supply and the introduction of a new network of roads. Maraval, for example, has evolved from a community with roadside houses to one with developments on the golf course, Haleland Park and Moka with the same two lane roadway in and out. There are similar stories in the West and Chaguanas. A new network of roads will mean some roadways constructed in an environmentally friendly way on the mountains. This is not new and before the so-called environmentalists start their hunger strikes, they should know that similar roadways have been constructed in the Maracas, in Paramin on the Lady Young Road and Santa Cruz through the mountains with minimal impact to the wildlife and the environment. Now is the time for planning a new network of roads to satisfy the demand for the next 25 years.
Economic planning must be a multifaceted approach to earning income that is not totally reliant on the investment of foreigners. The energy sector must be like our security blanket but the bed itself must be local. In such light it is inconceivable that a nation that is seen internationally as the birthplace of the steelpan has no steelpan factory. The most modern steelpan manufacturer globally is in Ohio, USA. (www.panyard.com )
Many of our nation's youth can be gainfully employed in pan manufacturing in a state of the art pan factory where "Made in Trinidad" pans can be made. The tourism package must be improved with specific makeover of the bird sanctuary tour and a modern approach to the Gasparee caves tour. From my observation, the Gasparee caves are much more interesting and beautiful than the Harrison caves of Barbados but less developed. Agriculture must evolve from mere attempts to supplement our food import bill to the exportation of our agricultural products. The DPTT, a political party that had not been very successful in the politics of T&T, has spent most of its political life on its vision for T&T and the ideas on Youtube (search DPTT) can be examined to assist in arriving at a national long-term plan for development. We cannot continue with business as usual.
Steve Alvarez
Via email