Padarath: PM Modi’s visit will redound to the benefit of citizens

Min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter, Bar­ry Padarath says sev­er­al mem­o­ran­da of un­der­stand­ing be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and In­dia will be signed dur­ing Prime Min­is­ter Naren­dra Mo­di's vis­it.

Dur­ing an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Padarath said in­tense prepa­ra­tions were on­go­ing for the high-pro­file vis­it, which will in­clude dis­cus­sions that can boost de­vel­op­ment be­tween both coun­tries.

"We can ex­pect to hear more in the ar­eas of ICT and tech­nol­o­gy, the area of med­i­cine as it re­lates to phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals, in par­tic­u­lar, dial­y­sis and can­cer treat­ments. We can ex­pect to hear more about trade and agri­cul­ture. There is al­so some tech­ni­cal sup­port in terms of digi­ti­sa­tion."

Padarath ex­plained that ef­forts are be­ing made to en­sure that the pro­posed part­ner­ships in key ar­eas will stand the test of time.

"It is a long-stand­ing re­la­tion­ship in ar­eas. Tech­nol­o­gy is very high on our agen­da. In­dia is a coun­try where tech­nol­o­gy in­sti­tutes found­ed in In­dia are found through­out the world, and in light of our thrust with the lap­top pro­gramme and the Min­istry of Ar­ti­fi­cial In­tel­li­gence, In­dia is a leader in those ar­eas, and the Prime Min­is­ter has pur­sued that." 

Asked about the mood ahead of the vis­it, Padarath replied in Hin­di, "bahut khub­surat", which in Eng­lish means very beau­ti­ful.

"It is a very beau­ti­ful syn­er­gy be­tween the Gov­ern­ment of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go and the gov­ern­ment of the Re­pub­lic of In­dia in terms of the way we ap­proach this vis­it. Prime Min­is­ter Mo­di is now a glob­al fig­ure. Over the next 24 hours, we will see a lot more colour through­out the en­tire coun­try be­cause the flags will be post­ed, the ban­ners and screens, be­cause there is a lot of na­tion­al in­ter­est. We have got­ten in­ter­est in at­tend­ing the events from across all sec­tors of so­ci­ety."

Al­so dur­ing his vis­it, Padarath con­firmed that Prime Min­is­ter Mo­di will be be­stowed with the coun­try's high­est na­tion­al award, the Or­der of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

In a state­ment yes­ter­day, the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter de­scribed the award as a sym­bol of ap­pre­ci­a­tion for Mo­di’s con­tri­bu­tions to the de­vel­op­ment of the coun­try and his ser­vice to the re­gion and wider in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty.

Prime Min­is­ter Mo­di’s vis­it will in­clude bi­lat­er­al meet­ings, cul­tur­al en­gage­ments, and a for­mal pre­sen­ta­tion cer­e­mo­ny where the award will be con­ferred the ORTT.

The award, which re­placed the Trin­i­ty Cross, can be pre­sent­ed to both na­tion­als and non-na­tion­als who have ren­dered dis­tin­guished and out­stand­ing ser­vice to the coun­try.

Mo­di is sched­uled to ar­rive in the coun­try on Thurs­day, Ju­ly 3. That evening, he’ll at­tend a com­mu­ni­ty di­as­po­ra event at the Na­tion­al Cy­cling Velo­drome in Cou­va.

On Fri­day, Ju­ly 4, Mo­di’s sched­ule in­cludes a cour­tesy call with Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo at the Of­fice of the Pres­i­dent, af­ter which he will de­liv­er an ad­dress to a joint sit­ting of Par­lia­ment.

His vis­it wraps with a cer­e­mo­ni­al ex­change of Mem­o­ran­da of Un­der­stand­ing and a sym­bol­ic tree plant­i­ng at the Par­lia­men­tary Com­plex.

The Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion has con­firmed that all schools in Trinidad will be dis­missed at 11.30 am on Thurs­day to min­imise traf­fic on the ma­jor high­ways. Nor­mal school op­er­a­tions will re­sume on Fri­day.

Mean­while, non-es­sen­tial gov­ern­ment of­fices will close in Trinidad on­ly from 1 pm on Thurs­day.