Exclusive
smelter talks
By Phoolo Danny-Maharaj, South Bureau
Trinidad Express
Port
Spain
Petroleumworldtt.com
11 26 06
Only people who receive invitations will be allowed
into a symposium on the aluminum industry next month.
The
event is being staged by the South Trinidad Chamber
of Industry and Commerce in collaboration with the
State-owned National Energy Corporation, at the
Paria Suites Hotel, La Romaine, on December 6.
Chamber
chief executive officer, Thackwray Driver, said
yesterday that 250 stakeholders had been invited,
but he declined to say whether Prime Minister Patrick
Manning would attend, or the extent of Government
involvement in the meeting of stakeholders on the
controversial setting up of aluminum smelters in
the country.
Driver
said: "Invitations have been sent out to stakeholders
from across the island. Some 250 people are expected
to attend, but I cannot say if the Prime Minister
would be there."
Earlier
this month at a post-Cabinet media briefing, Manning
said that the Government would hold a symposium
on the plan at month end. He said depending on what
comes out of that symposium, his administration
would rethink its position on the smelters, which
have drawn protests from environmentalists, villagers
living near the proposed sites of the plants at
Point Fortin and La Brea and politicians.
He
had indicated that the NEC would hold the one-day
symposium along with other groups.
As
such, it was felt that the Government would have
an input in the December 6 event. A source at the
Chamber, however, said that Manning was not invited
to that symposium.
Fitzroy
Beache, president of the Cap-de-Ville/Chatham Environment
Protection Group, one of the most vocal opponents
of the proposed Point Fortin plant, said his group
would not attend the symposium because "it
is only by invitation".
He
said: "If the Chamber was really interested
in discussing the smelter and the effects on people's
lives, it should have held it somewhere in Chatham
for the public."
Beache
said he would be leaving the country for three months
to attend his daughter's graduation in the US, but
assured villagers, "I am not deserting you.
In my absence, the vice president and other members
would carry on the struggle."
Chamber
president, Rampersad Motilal, could not be reached
for comment. He was said to be in a meeting
In
a statement last week, Driver said international
experts from the United States and other countries
would attend the symposium, which would be open
to the public, religious groups, government workers,
businesses and members of the public, but priority
would be given to the stakeholders, groups and schools
from the South West Peninsula.
The
objective of the symposium, he said, "is to
provide information and to promote discussion on
the development of the aluminum industry in the
country as outlined (Manning) in his recent post-cabinet
press briefing".
He
said the Chamber had organised the symposium because
"we are recognised as an independent, non-partisan
association, which has consistently upheld the highest
ethical standards and which has been actively involved
in issues of national development for the past fifty
years."
Trinidad
Express
Thursday, November 23rd 2006
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