00:00The opposition goes out and begins to scandalize. It is his company that wants to invest in Trinidad and Tobago, you know.
00:09They say Mr. Jindal is a man accused of all sorts of things in his political life and therefore he is the worst.
00:17Scandalize the man's name. They scandalize Sandals.
00:24Tourism Minister Randall Mitchell towing the government's line that the opposition was the reason why Sandals scrapped its planned hotel in Tobago
00:32as he responded to statements made by Leader of Opposition Business Wade Mark in the Senate on Tuesday about a non-tourism related project.
00:42In doing so, Senator Mark made reference to Indian businessman Naveen Jindal, the chairman of Jindal Steel and Power Ltd.
00:50In a letter to Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley in August of this year, Mr. Jindal said his company withdrew its interest in the state-owned oil refinery in Pointer Pier
01:00due to unjust attacks and character assassination by those Mr. Jindal identified as official opposition parties in Trinidad and Tobago.
01:10In the Senate on Monday, Senator Mark expressed concern about the short list of potential bidders by the cabinet-appointed Evaluation Committee to restart the oil refinery.
01:40Senator Mark also told the Senate that the opposition found no such results for a local consortium on the short list as he called on the government to take specific action.
02:10It is too corrupt and the government must answer. In fact, we need a criminal forensic investigation into this entire transaction.
02:22Minister Mitchell gave no indication that the government would be scrapping the process or having a forensic investigation commenced into it.
02:31And then Senator Mark, of course, he spoke on the refinery. And Senator Mark found himself on the usual page in the UNC playbook.
02:43So they're so concerned about the missing million dollars of foreign exchange that we lost on the closure of the refinery, but every time we try to get an operator or a sale or whatever for the refinery, they scandalize everything about it.
03:05So that's all we did. And persons expressed interest. Up comes Senator Mark to scandalize those entities that have expressed interest.
03:17Minister Mitchell then made reference to the upcoming general election due next year, 2025.
03:24There may be a very, very slim outside chance that the UNC may take office. Very slim. Mugger. Meagre.
03:38But those entities, when they look at the behavior of the opposition, they tell themselves, why? Why go into Trinidad and Tobago where we have such a hostile environment by these political actors?
03:57When the finance minister read the budget statement in the House of Representatives on September 30th, he said a formal selective request for proposals process will now be initiated to determine the winner among the three companies on the shortlist with a view to restarting the refinery if found feasible.
04:17Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
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