(Trinidad Express) Foreign Affairs Minister Surujrattan Rambachan said yesterday former prime minister Patrick Manning spent TT$127,000 to lease a private jet to attend a Caricom Youth Summit in January 2010 and TT$124,740 to lease an aircraft for a one-day Caricom meeting. “This would shock you, Mr Speaker, August 24 to 26, two days … to travel to Bahamas, Belize, Jamaica and Suriname, aircraft leased at a cost of $790,593,” he said.
Speaking in the debate on the no-confidence motion in the House of Representatives, Rambachan said he was revealing this information because so much was being made of the current Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s travels which was being done to achieve certain goals.
Rambachan dismissed Opposition charges the Prime Minister was spending too much money on travel, that she was travelling too often and that she was staying away from the country for too long.
He said between 2010-2011 and in 2012, Persad-Bissessar made 16 trips. He said Manning made 17 trips in 1995 alone, visiting 19 countries and using a private jet six times.
In 2006, Manning travelled 13 times, six countries and used a private jet seven times.
In 2007, Manning travelled 13 times, to 15 countries and used a private jet five times, in 2008, Manning travelled 15 times, to 24 different countries and used a private jet ten times.
On the length of time stayed away, Rambachan noted that in January 2007, Manning travelled to Ethiopia, Uganda and Jamaica and stayed 11 days, while he visited Germany and the United Emirates for eight days on another occasion.
Rambachan said Persad-Bissessar had to go out and market the country.
He said this Prime Minister’s travels were beginning to bear fruit but there was still a question mark over the billion dollars spent for the Summit of the Americas and CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting) in this country in 2009.
He said TT$184.8 million was spent to bring two cruise ships for those conferences—TT$125 million for the Summit and TT$59 million for CHOGM. “These are the comparisons you have to make,” he said.
The Foreign Affairs Minister also said under the management of the Prime Minister the country’s economy had been stabilised.
He said there were 12,150 brand new cars purchased in 2009.
By 2010 there were 12,355 new cars purchased and in 2011 there were 12,965 new cars.
In 2012 there were 41 new cars being purchased every day, Rambachan said in December 2010 commercial banks had outstanding loans to consumers amounting to $19 billion.
By December 2011, it rose by almost one billion to $19.997 billion. “And we are being made to feel that no one is borrowing,” he said.
Rambachan said the banking sector had loans to incorporated businesses by December 2010 to the tune of TT$22 billion.
He said in 2011 this rose to TT$23 billion, an increase by one billion. “So the argument that there is no confidence in the economy is flawed,” he said.
Rambachan said in 2008, there were 759,536 arrivals in Trinidad and Tobago.
In 2009 there was a 22 per cent drop to 565,569, he said.
But by 2010 there was a 32 per cent increase to 832,746.
And in 2011 there was a further increase to 851,253.
“People have confidence. So to make the assertion that crime is keeping people away is fallacious. People are returning in their thousands. This is not me speaking. It is the statistics,” he stressed.
He said all the talk about the lack of investment was nonsense and pointed to the number of new businesses which were emerging.
He said new supermarkets were being opened “all over the place”, McDonald’s was returning, SuperPharm was expanding and there were many new businesses in the Penal/Debe area.
On the issue of inflation, he said it was 10.5 per cent in 2010 and was reduced in 2011 by 50 per cent to 5.2 per cent.
He said these were Central Bank figures.
