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CCNTV6
  • 1 year ago
Those at the helm of commerce in the capital city are tonight saying that business is shrinking in Port of Spain and the evidence is there for all to see.


Urvashi Tiwari Roopnarine spoke with the president of the Downtown Owners and Merchants Association, DOMA.
Transcript
00:00Doma says in the midst of a divided society, the capital city is losing its
00:05luster. There is less foot traffic, fewer stores and a dip in the items being
00:11traded. I mean Port of Spain is holding its own but there is no growth taking
00:20place in city business at this time. There are one or two new food
00:29establishments which are showing up but apart from that there's no expansion
00:36taking place. President of Doma Gregory Abood says the business community has
00:41been relegated to silence. The majority of the population think that either we
00:46are unfair or have ulterior motives or are taking advantage and also more
00:54recently are influencing the government. And that has interfered with any
00:58progressive discussion sought with authorities. None of that is really true
01:03but it has hurt us terribly because we haven't been able to start a
01:06conversation about how to help everybody because we keep making
01:11accusations and denying requests and holding off on good initiatives because
01:17it may not be politically popular for one group to be seen as being listened
01:25to or the like. Abood laments that any moves proposed by the business community
01:30are seen as selfish moves. The retort is you know and this is from high authority
01:36this is from people in office including those in City Hall who will make the
01:42comment them have enough already or them always want more as opposed to the city
01:48is shrinking and right opposite City Hall are very many vacant buildings. That
01:53is never the reply. The reply is don't listen to them. Everybody have to get a
01:57share. Well that philosophy has put us in a place where we are which is that in
02:02trying to slice up the cake the cake is being destroyed. Now the businessmen face
02:07the brunt of division. I have been told on the street right outside why only to
02:13go from here and leave here for we. Policies and decisions actioned by city
02:19authorities don't always win the favor of the merchants like the renaming of
02:24Charlotte Street to Chinatown. I was part of that committee it was chaired by
02:28very eminent members of the Chinese community in downtown Port of Spain who
02:33had severe reservations about the renaming of Charlotte Street as Chinatown.
02:37It doesn't represent China at all. There's hardly any there's no Chinese
02:41food which was one of the things that we asked for the time give us some work
02:46permits to bring in some Chinese chefs nothing no interest. Within that move at
02:50Booth says there is much irony and hypocrisy. I mean maybe the mayor and his
02:55council would care to explain why the rules of the program are constantly
03:00being broken. There's a program there. You have the irony if I might say so
03:07publicly. The irony of allowing people to come and set up shop and tents and
03:16tables in front of a man's business to sell the product that he is selling and
03:21to block the customer from going in his shop to say look I have it here cheaper
03:25don't buy from them buy from me. Okay you have that taking place. How do you
03:32expect the man to survive? You can't see his business you can't see his show
03:36window you can't get into his entrance. Turning consumers away are the many
03:40ills plaguing Port of Spain's appeal as a commercial center like crime and now
03:46homelessness. The proposal for a move along program was never adopted. You
03:52can't arrest anybody but you could move them along they're not allowed to loiter
03:56so sleeping on a sidewalk and defecating in the canal is simply not allowed
04:01because you're not allowed to stay there so they come and they tap him with a
04:04billy stick and say look you have to move you have to move from here you
04:07can't stay here and you try to corral people in a humane manner into another
04:12part of the city where they will not obstruct the potential clients of the
04:16city we got nothing on that. The data exists to bolster his claim that
04:21business is shrinking in Port of Spain. The number of vacant properties
04:27particularly in some of the street to street malls it has also at its core in
04:33the data the number of buildings which are for sale and not only that but the
04:39number of those which have been for sale for an extended period of time some for
04:44as long as a year or two years now and then it has finally at its the rest of
04:51the data is at the rental per square foot that of the properties which are
04:56rented is significantly lower than it is elsewhere particularly in the suburbs.
05:02Every country Abood says needs a vibrant capital and in the case of TNT
05:07cooperation must be had. The business community are not your enemies the
05:13business community compete with each other and keep the prices as low as they
05:18can they provide you with the product that they could find that is as
05:21interesting as possible and they do so in an open market. This country would
05:27serve itself much better in my respectful view if we didn't have the
05:31adversarial opinion that we do of each other and particularly of the business
05:36community. Us and them. Big and small.
05:40Urvashi Timwari, Rupnir Ain, TV6 News.
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