NEWS
One dead, one wounded in Morvant shooting
A 56-year-old man is dead and another man wounded after a shooting incident in Morvant on Saturday afternoon. The dead man has been identified as Curtis “Choko” Charles, of Picton Road, Lady Young, Morvant. Police said at about 4.15 pm on Saturday, Charles was in the garage area in the compound of Najas Mini Mart on Coconut Drive, liming with two other people – one identified as 62-year-old Leroy Carter of Coconut Drive, and another man only identified as “Lamo.” Read more here
Businessmen do road repairs in South Oropouche
Dismissing Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan’s assurance of an aggressive road rehabilitation programme, a group of South Oropouche businessmen yesterday embarked on a road repair exercise in their community. “That is the propaganda we have heard in the media, that the Minister of Works and Transport said they did 50 per cent of the road. I could tell you about this southern part of Trinidad. We haven’t seen any evidence of that whatsoever,” said businessman Clint Arjoon. He complained that the Government sometimes focuses on building new roads rather than maintaining existing roads. Read more here
POLITICS
Young to visit Venezuela again as Dragon deal negotiations continue
Energy Minister Stuart Young is planning a third visit to Caracas, Venezuela, in continuing conversations with energy ministers and other officials there on developing the Dragon gas field, a Reuters report onThursday said. Speaking to Reuters at CERAWeek, an annual energy conference in Houston, Texas, Young said TT has held substantive talks with Venezuela on developing the gas field which holds up to 4.2TSF of natural gas. This comes a little over a month after Young visited Caracas with a TT delegation to discuss a list of matters, including matters regarding hydrocarbons and joint projects. Venezuelan state media reported that Venezuela's vice-president Delcy Rodriguez welcomed the TT delegation which included NGC chairman Mark Loquan and Ambassador to Caracas Edmund Dillon. Read more here
Minister: Steady progress at Piarco Solar Park
Planning and Development Minister Pennelope Beckles says the Solar Farm project, in collaboration with the European Union’s Global Climate Change Alliance Plus (GCCA+), has been progressing steadily at the Piarco International Airport during February and March. In a statement yesterday, she said several technical tasks have been completed, such as the installation of 25 tonnes of photovoltaic (PV) ground mounted structures, 960 PV modules, a transformer and high voltage cables. Also being installed are fibre-optic cables, inverters as well as a drainage system. The minister said the aim of this initiative is to increase the availability and use of energy from renewable sources, as well as to increase the efficiency levels in the consumption of energy in Trinidad and Tobago. Read more here
BUSINESS
Local motor vehicle industry sees uptick in sales over last year
With the onset of the pandemic, many industries faced a myriad of unforeseen complications. For the automotive industry, it was the global shortage of semi-conductors which mashed the brake on production, inevitably trickling down to sales. According to Massy Motor’s vice president of operations, Jeremy Pagee, the company has observed some sale performance improvement, however, it is still lower than in previous years. “The question is one of demand versus supply. While there has been a very modest uptick from last year, the restricted supply hasn’t allowed us to meet the potential of the demand, and the market is still below pre-pandemic levels.” He stated that these supply issues affected the manufacturing of the vehicles, which capped vehicle production since supply issues presented a challenge. Read more here
Minister holds successful energy talks
Energy Minster Stuart Young has held talks with Australian energy company Woodside on its oil and gas production and a deep water project in Trinidad and Tobago. On Friday Young met with chief executive officer of Woodside Energy Meg O’Neill, at the company’s Houston offices. Young’s team included Acting Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries Sandra Fraser and President of NGC Mark Loquan. Read more here
REGIONAL
Massive boost to corn and soya bean production
With much focus being placed on reducing the Caribbean’s hefty food import bill by 25 per cent by 2025, Guyana will soon ramp up production of corn and soya bean as the construction of three 3,000-tonne silos and one 80-tonne-per hour drying tower at Tacama Landing, along the Berbice River, are set to be completed in May of this year. Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha, told the Guyana Chronicle, on Sunday, that once those facilities are completed, more livestock feed production is expected. “Once that is completed, we will have more time to take it to the feed mill so that we can make it into feed. We have a consortium that we are working with to make the feed for the livestock for the country,” the Agriculture Minister said. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
Ukraine war: Heavy losses reported as battle for Bakhmut rages
Ukraine and Russia have reported inflicting heavy losses as the battle for Bakhmut rages on. Moscow has been trying to take the eastern Ukrainian city for months in a grinding war of attrition. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian forces had suffered more than 1,100 deaths in the past few days, with many more seriously injured. Russia said it had killed more than 220 Ukrainian service members over the past 24 hours. The BBC is unable to verify the numbers given by either side. Read more here
13th March 2023