Wednesday, July 2, 2008

T&T TOO RICH

Juhel Browne of the Express has the front page story titled 'T&T Too Rich', a proclamation by US President George Bush as he modifies duty-free treatment for several developing countries (see paragraphs 6 & 11).

In his article, Juhel has an interview with Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Mariano Browne who said it's not threatening to business, but government will not ignore it.
But Juhel, just recently you wrote a story about the fact that the government received a $60M no-interest loan from China. At that time we also questioned why the government was taking a loan, but you didn't. You just printed the facts.
You also had the opportunity yesterday to question the minister about the supposed riches that the US President is talking about, and to ask why then if we are so rich are we still borrowing money from China?

On the other hand, the Guardian's Sandra Chouthi has an interview with economist Jwala Rambarran on the same story, and he says "“We have a vibrant energy sector that people come and invest in. We have more or less moved away from aid flows. They are no longer as important to T&T as a form of financing.”"