Act­ing Prime Min­is­ter and Fi­nance Min­is­ter Win­ston Dook­er­an says he does not an­tic­i­pate the drop in oil prices fol­low­ing the death of Libyan leader Colonel Muam­mar Gaddafi to ad­verse­ly im­pact T&T. Dook­er­an, who spoke in an in­ter­view on Sun­day night at the Fyz­abad con­stituen­cy an­nu­al Di­vali cel­e­bra­tio ns, Old Siparia Main Road, Siparia, said, Gov­ern­ment's pro­jec­tions for the econ­o­my would re­main the same. He said that even in­ter­na­tion­al news me­dia, in­clud­ing Busi­ness­week re­port­ed that oil fell 33 cents to $85.28 a bar­rel in New York last Thurs­day af­ter Gaddafi's death.

"Clear­ly the geo-po­lit­i­cal sys­tem must con­stant­ly be un­der re­view but, our pro­jec­tions are that we will sta­bilise over the course of the year. "I do not think it (Gaddafi's death) will have neg­a­tive im­pact in the medi­um term," Dook­er­an said. The act­ing Prime Min­is­ter was warm­ly wel­comed at the Fyz­abad cel­e­bra­tions and was es­cort­ed to the podi­um by young chil­dren dressed in eth­nic wear. Dook­er­an told pa­trons the Hin­du fes­ti­val of Di­vali was about light, which had two di­men­sions, in­ner light and out­er light. The out­er light, he added, was a re­flec­tion of the in­ner light.

"If we have the in­ner light in each one of us, then it will ra­di­ate on the out­er world and that re­al­ly is the chal­lenge that we take on. Let the in­ner light in each one of us ra­di­ate in­to the out­side light so that we can have a so­ci­ety and a na­tion that we can be proud off," Dook­er­an ad­vised. He said he want­ed the na­tion to make sure the "out­side light is al­ways ­flamed and is de­rived from the in­ner light."