Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has called on cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go to em­brace the New Year with re­newed hope, uni­ty, and a com­mit­ment to over­com­ing the chal­lenges fac­ing the na­tion.

In his New Year’s Day mes­sage to the na­tion, Row­ley high­light­ed the im­por­tance of re­silience in the face of the cur­rent State of Emer­gency, which has been im­ple­ment­ed to com­bat es­ca­lat­ing crime. 

The Prime Min­is­ter em­pha­sised the need for de­ci­sive ac­tion to re­store bal­ance and pro­tect the fun­da­men­tal rights of law-abid­ing cit­i­zens from crim­i­nal el­e­ments.

“While we cher­ish our fun­da­men­tal rights and free­doms, the State must act de­ci­sive­ly when mur­der, home in­va­sions, kid­nap­pings, and ex­tor­tion be­come nor­malised,” the Prime Min­is­ter said.

“These ac­tions threat­en the peace and se­cu­ri­ty of our na­tion, and we must ad­dress them col­lec­tive­ly.”

Re­flect­ing on the dual na­ture of hu­man emo­tions, the Prime Min­is­ter ac­knowl­edged that fear and hope co­ex­ist but stressed the im­por­tance of sus­tain­ing hope as a moral virtue.

“We un­der­stand that some cit­i­zens may, at some point, hold fears about the di­rec­tion of the coun­try, rather than hope, but I urge that they try to imag­ine how in­tol­er­a­ble and shat­ter­ing our lives would be with­out that virtue of hope.”

The Prime Min­is­ter al­so un­der­scored the na­tion’s progress in nav­i­gat­ing eco­nom­ic chal­lenges, not­ing that T&T is on a path of sus­tained growth.

The coun­try record­ed its third con­sec­u­tive year of re­al GDP growth in 2024, with the In­ter­na­tion­al Mon­e­tary Fund pro­ject­ing a 2.3 per cent growth rate for 2025.

He said, en­cour­ag­ing­ly, the non-en­er­gy sec­tor is dri­ving eco­nom­ic re­cov­ery, with the Her­itage and Sta­bil­i­sa­tion Fund stand­ing at over US$6 bil­lion and for­eign re­serves at US$5.4 bil­lion. He high­light­ed a low in­fla­tion rate of 0.2 per cent as of Oc­to­ber 2024 and a steady un­em­ploy­ment rate, po­si­tion­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go favourably com­pared to re­gion­al coun­ter­parts.

“These achieve­ments should in­spire col­lec­tive hope,” he said.

As the na­tion en­ters 2025, the Prime Min­is­ter urged cit­i­zens to ac­knowl­edge their in­di­vid­ual and col­lec­tive re­spon­si­bil­i­ties in ad­dress­ing chal­lenges such as ris­ing crime. He called for these re­flec­tions to ex­tend be­yond in­di­vid­u­als to fam­i­lies, schools, work­places, and places of wor­ship, em­pha­sis­ing the im­por­tance of shared val­ues and pur­pose.

Quot­ing the na­tion­al an­them, the Prime Min­is­ter en­cour­aged the na­tion to have “bound­less faith in our des­tiny” and work to­geth­er to­ward a fu­ture marked by peace, love, and pros­per­i­ty.

The Prime Min­is­ter con­clud­ed his mes­sage with a heart­felt wish for a safe, hap­py, and pros­per­ous New Year, ex­press­ing con­fi­dence in the na­tion’s abil­i­ty to over­come any ob­sta­cle when unit­ed in pur­pose.