New Year's Day mes­sage from PM Dr kei­th Row­ley

Fel­low cit­i­zens, as we bring down the cur­tains on 2018 and wel­come the New Year, 2019, this is an op­por­tune time to en­gage in some qui­et re­flec­tion on the year that has passed and al­so cast our minds for­ward to pre­pare our­selves for the year ahead.

In so do­ing, it is im­per­a­tive that we thank God for bring­ing us through to this point. As a God-fear­ing na­tion, we humbly count our bless­ings, which are in­deed nu­mer­ous. Chief among these bless­ings is the strength and re­silience of the peo­ple of T&T. Broth­ers and sis­ters, you con­tin­ue to be this na­tion’s great­est re­source and we must be eter­nal­ly grate­ful that we are so blessed.

Dur­ing 2018, our na­tion con­front­ed many so­cial and eco­nom­ic chal­lenges. How­ev­er, through the sound and pro­gres­sive lead­er­ship of the Gov­ern­ment, cou­pled with the strong will of the peo­ple, we have been able to nav­i­gate through some treach­er­ous wa­ters.

As for­mi­da­ble as our chal­lenges may seem, we, the Gov­ern­ment and peo­ple of T&T will not be de­feat­ed. We will con­tin­ue to work stead­fast­ly with a view to giv­ing all the peo­ple of this coun­try an op­por­tu­ni­ty to re­alise their full po­ten­tial, to be the best that they can be.

Un­doubt­ed­ly, we will con­tin­ue to face chal­lenges as we jour­ney for­ward as a na­tion, but like our renowned, top-rank­ing ca­lyp­son­ian the Black Stal­in ad­vised us “we can make it if we try”.

And so, fel­low cit­i­zens, as we con­fi­dent­ly step in­to 2019, I again ask you to val­ue one an­oth­er as we pray and work to­geth­er to build our na­tion. It is clear that we have what it takes not on­ly to sur­vive but to thrive. Through our col­lec­tive hard work and hon­est toil, we will pre­vail over our ad­ver­si­ties and make the most of our bless­ings to the ben­e­fit of us all.

On be­half of my fam­i­ly and the Gov­ern­ment of T&T, I wish you all a safe and hap­py New Year’s Hol­i­day and pros­per­i­ty and love in 2019.