00:00Speaking on the Morning Edition, T.O.P. leader Ashworth Jack describes the budget as a well-conceived package that
00:08signals a clear commitment to modernizing Tobago's economy.
00:12Tobago has been largely neglected for quite a while, you know, and so there's an attempt to bring these things
00:23in line.
00:24I don't expect all the problems to be addressed in one fell swoop.
00:31It's going to take some time, but it's also going to take some collaboration with the private sector in order
00:37to so do.
00:38While welcoming the continued focus on tourism, Jack says the hospitality sector must also examine its own competitiveness,
00:47arguing that pricing and business strategies should evolve alongside efforts to attract more visitors to the island.
00:55You rent a villa and it might pay over four or five thousand dollars a night.
00:59We might have five or seven rooms.
01:01So when you take that into consideration, you know you get a bigger bang for your buck.
01:08So the places like your AB&Bs and your villas, that industry is doing extremely, extremely well.
01:20And so the hotel industry in particular need to take a second look and see how they can adjust in
01:29order to maximize the use of the local tourists.
01:35Jack also weighs in on the debate over tax revenue, maintaining that existing legislation requires businesses operating in Tobago to
01:44pay taxes there.
01:46He argues that recognizing Tobago's economic contribution is essential to the island's continued growth and development.
01:54If you go any given night, you come to Tobago and you're traveling in the east of Tobago,
02:01all those burning gas fields, a number of their latches, I can't say all, are outside of the east of
02:08Tobago,
02:09where they are considered to be north of Trinidad.
02:12And that is never seen as a contribution of Tobago to Trinidad and Tobago economy.
02:18So Tobago contributes a whole lot more.
02:20A lot of the natural gas fields that we are now discussing are outside of Kassara, which is on the
02:25other side of the island.
02:26Nicole M. Romany, TV6 News.
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