00:00Opposition MP and former Finance Minister Colm Imbert says the former PNM administration had agreed that upgrading works would be
00:07carried out on the state-owned property where the Hilton Trinidad is located.
00:11So if you are somebody like Hilton International and you have an arrangement with a previous government that the government
00:18would spend $400 million bringing the hotel up to its standards and then you would enter into a new long
00:24-term lease and that's why this statement about why on earth would anybody just
00:30extend something from a year is just ridiculous because that was just a holding period so that you settle everything,
00:36you agree on how you're going to refurbish this hotel and then you enter into a new 10-year or
00:4015-year lease as the case may be, standard business practice. So the new government just fell down on the
00:45job.
00:46MP Imbert was speaking during the opposition's media conference today. In speaking about the Hilton Hotel, he also made reference
00:53to the state-owned ETAC being transferred from the Trade Ministry to the Land and Legal Affairs Ministry.
01:00What's going on? The thing expired in September 25. What's the government doing? You know, you have to come up
01:08with the money to finish the project. You have to agree on the refurbishment details. Apparently none of this has
01:13been done and they've just spent all the time arguing amongst themselves and some kind of internal power play and
01:20I hope they fix this.
01:21I certainly hope so. Now they've shifted it to Saddam Hussein's ministry. Maybe he will have the sense, the good
01:30sense to resolve this matter because this has all been settled before.
01:33That's all been settled.
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