Kamla: Govt to sell National Quarries, LABIDCO, Hilton and Magdalena

Stephon Nicholas

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has an­nounced plans for the Gov­ern­ment to di­vest sev­er­al state-owned as­sets, in­clud­ing Na­tion­al Quar­ries Lim­it­ed, Hilton Trinidad Hilton, the Mag­dale­na Grand Beach and Golf Re­sort and the La Brea In­dus­tri­al De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny Ltd (LABID­CO).

Speak­ing at the sod-turn­ing cer­e­mo­ny for a new $500 mil­lion Mar­riott re­sort at Rocky Point, To­ba­go, yes­ter­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the State has a poor track record of op­er­at­ing com­mer­cial en­ter­pris­es, hence the de­ci­sion to di­vest its ho­tel as­sets, adding that greater pri­vate-sec­tor in­volve­ment is need­ed to dri­ve eco­nom­ic growth.

The re­sort, be­ing de­vel­oped by Su­pe­ri­or Ho­tels, is ex­pect­ed to be com­plet­ed by 2029.

Con­grat­u­lat­ing Su­pe­ri­or Ho­tels chair­man John Aboud on the in­vest­ment, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said pri­vate-sec­tor projects are crit­i­cal to stim­u­lat­ing eco­nom­ic ac­tiv­i­ty and cre­at­ing de­vel­op­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties.

"The busi­ness of gov­ern­ment is not in run­ning ho­tels, and this is where pri­vate-sec­tor in­vest­ment is vi­tal. Why is a gov­ern­ment run­ning a ho­tel?" she said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­vealed that ex­pres­sions of in­ter­est will soon be in­vit­ed for the di­vest­ment of both the Mag­dale­na Grand Beach and Golf Re­sort and the Trinidad Hilton, both of which are whol­ly owned by the State.

The Gov­ern­ment re­cent­ly ac­quired full own­er­ship of the Hilton amid con­cerns that the in­ter­na­tion­al ho­tel chain could with­draw its brand from the prop­er­ty.

She crit­i­cised the per­for­mance of sev­er­al state-run en­ter­pris­es, ar­gu­ing that Gov­ern­ment re­sources are of­ten not man­aged ef­fi­cient­ly.

"Most things that the gov­ern­ment in­vests in, they bust. True or not true?" she said.

Re­fer­ring to the Mag­dale­na re­sort, she added: "Why is the gov­ern­ment run­ning a ho­tel and run­ning it in­to the dust?"

The Mag­dale­na re­cent­ly fur­loughed more than 50 work­ers for at least one month, cit­ing low oc­cu­pan­cy lev­els and re­duced busi­ness ac­tiv­i­ty.

The Prime Min­is­ter al­so sig­nalled plans to di­vest oth­er state-owned en­ti­ties, in­clud­ing Na­tion­al Quar­ries.

"Gov­ern­ment run­ning Na­tion­al Quar­ries to the ground. They pre­pare ag­gre­gate. It costs them $350 and then they sell it for $150. That's mak­ing any sense?" she said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar fur­ther sug­gest­ed that in­vestors con­sid­er ac­quir­ing LABID­CO as part of the Gov­ern­ment's di­vest­ment dri­ve.

"Any per­son in­ter­est­ed, we want to di­vest LABID­CO. Talk to your friends and fam­i­lies. A gov­ern­ment can­not suc­ceed by spend­ing all the mon­ey, cre­at­ing busi­ness­es, cre­at­ing en­ti­ties and dust to bust," she said.