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  • 1 year ago
Trade Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon believes a lot of 'hullabaloo' has been circulating in the public domain concerning the visit of Indian businessman Naveen Jindal to this country, and the discussions he has had with the government.
The Minister accuses the Opposition of trying to destroy the country, which she says is in need of investment. Alicia Boucher has the details.
Transcript
00:00Trade Minister Paula Gopiskun believes the conversations surrounding Indian
00:04businessman Naveen Jindal are in essence much ado about nothing.
00:09So I've noticed what I could only describe as hullabaloo in the national
00:14press about Mr. Jindal's presence in Trinidad and Tobago and I want to say
00:20that we welcome Mr. Jindal to our country. It's very disappointing that the
00:26opposition would seek to make mayhem over the visit of someone who can really
00:32help us in Trinidad and Tobago by investing in our country. It comes as
00:37Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley held a meeting at the Diplomatic Center with
00:41Jindal who is chairman of Jindal Steel and Power Limited over the Petrotrin
00:47refinery. Subsequent to that allegations of corruption against the billionaires
00:53surrounding mining kickbacks have been brought to the fore cited in a 2013
00:58Forbes report. This is what the minister has to say on the matter. In the course
01:03of the life of any business you would have challenges, legal challenges. That's
01:08the nature of business. You enter into contractual arrangements. Contractual
01:13arrangements are not necessarily all smooth. It's the reason why you have
01:19these cadre of lawyers and attorneys who can prepare to deal with such matters. So
01:25therefore to assign that level of attention on one minor issue is really a
01:34wonder to us. She says the country should instead be focusing on welcoming
01:39investors. Gopi school is taking the United National Congress to task for its
01:44pronouncements on the matter. Opposition leader Kamala Prasad Bisesa has
01:49questioned if it was Venezuela that made a link between Jindal and the
01:54government and if Jindal is the intermediary for the two parties. And it
01:59tells you that instead of welcoming people to our country, the opposition
02:04perhaps is seeking this to destroy High Commissioner of TNT to India. Dr Roger
02:10Gopal says the prime minister worked hard at attracting investors from India
02:15across different sectors during his visit to New Delhi. Dr Gopal is of the
02:20opinion that Dr Rowley's engagement has been extremely transparent. As for
02:26Jindal, Mr Jindal is a member of Parliament of the certain government of
02:34India, the Bharatiya Janata Party under Prime Minister Modi. And secondly, the
02:41media could easily find any information on the work that Mr Jindal is doing
02:47globally. And I'll leave it at that. Alicia Boucher TV six News
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