Winston Dookeran Defending the Government's Decision to Scrap the Controversial Alutrint Aluminium Smelter Project

This article about Winston Dookeran defending the Government's Decision to scrap the controversial Alutrint aluminium smelter project, although knowing that it would have implications for the government to address.

The financial minister Winston Dookeran said, "The nation has got to cut its losses and move on. We can't have these losses as burdens for all times.

He explained the Government made its decision based on

• Whether It was viable

• Whether it was the proper use of the country's natural gas reserves

• The Trinidad public said on the May 24th that they wanted no part of that kind of development

Dookeran also stated his opinions on what would be the positive and negative effects of this development.

• The main positive effect is that the TGU (Trinidad Generation Unlimited) which is a cycle power plant that was built in La Brea to provide and secure the electricity supply for the smelter and the public.

Now that the plant is no longer being constructed, The Government plans for the smelter site

• To establish an industrial estate on the former site of the smelter and was confident it would generate sustainable jobs for the residents of the surrounding communities and would not require more of the gas reserves than the smelter as some suggested.

Terminating the Alutrint project will have implications and diplomacy would be required with respect to a loan arrangement for the project, which was negotiated between the former PNM government and the Chinese government.

Although Dookeran said the details of the Alutrint contract were never revealed by the former Patrick Manning administration.