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Tuesday, February 25, 2025

Farley’s 2025 wish list: Focus on food security, healthcare, education, tourism

by

Elizabeth Gonzales
54 days ago
20250102
Chief Secretary  Farley Augustine

Chief Secretary Farley Augustine

THA

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine is urg­ing To­ba­go to em­brace 2025 with de­ter­mi­na­tion and uni­ty.

In a New Year’s mes­sage shared via so­cial me­dia, Au­gus­tine used a vi­sion board style to put tacks in his ma­jor goals over the next 12 months.

“Our de­vel­op­ment slo­gan is, ‘Great­est lit­tle is­land on the plan­et,’” he said.

“This is a pow­er­ful de­c­la­ra­tion, and we com­mit to do­ing the work to en­sure that she be­comes more beau­ti­ful.”

One of the top pri­or­i­ties for 2025 is food se­cu­ri­ty. Au­gus­tine an­nounced ini­tia­tives such as the mega farm­ing project and the To­ba­go Agribusi­ness Re­search In­sti­tute.

“These ini­tia­tives promise to be game chang­ers that will em­pow­er our peo­ple and even­tu­al­ly help us to build a more self-suf­fi­cient lit­tle is­land,” he ex­plained.

The gov­ern­ment al­so plans to im­prove fish­ing fa­cil­i­ties and pro­vide se­cu­ri­ty de­vices for fish­er­folk.

Health­care is an­oth­er key fo­cus.

Au­gus­tine said the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) will be pur­chas­ing an MRI and CT scan­ner for the Scar­bor­ough Hos­pi­tal and re­plac­ing the age­ing hy­per­bar­ic cham­ber at Rox­bor­ough. He al­so spoke of plans for a new To­ba­go car­diac care pro­gramme, the ar­rival of a fleet of am­bu­lances, and the in­tro­duc­tion of a “ba­by box ini­tia­tive” for new par­ents.

“We un­der­stand that a healthy To­bag­on­ian pop­u­la­tion will lead vi­brant and ful­fill­ing lives,” Au­gus­tine said.

Ed­u­ca­tion will al­so see big changes in 2025.

“We en­vi­sion an in­clu­sive sys­tem for our is­land,” said Au­gus­tine, adding that schools will re­main open af­ter hours for com­mu­ni­ty learn­ing un­der the new “Com­mu­ni­ty Im­pact” pro­gramme. Plans al­so in­clude the con­struc­tion of an ear­ly child­hood care cen­tre and schol­ar­ships for stu­dents study­ing fields like lo­gis­tics, sup­ply chain man­age­ment, and tourism.

He said tourism is set to grow as well, with im­prove­ments planned for pop­u­lar beach­es like Pi­geon Point and Store Bay. Au­gus­tine al­so promised new ho­tel de­vel­op­ments and ex­cit­ing fes­ti­vals, in­clud­ing the To­ba­go Tourism and Souls Fes­ti­val.

“We are ex­treme­ly ex­cit­ed to im­prove the is­land’s tourism prod­uct,” he said.

Al­so, au­ton­o­my is a key fo­cus on Au­gus­tine’s vi­sion for 2025. He said his ad­min­is­tra­tion will con­tin­ue ef­forts in digi­ti­sa­tion and push for greater au­ton­o­my for the THA.

“This is more than just a vi­sion. It is al­so an in­vi­ta­tion for you to dream with us, to con­tribute and to be part of your is­land’s trans­for­ma­tion,” Au­gus­tine said.

He en­cour­aged To­bag­o­ni­ans to work to­geth­er in 2025. “To­ba­go, our vi­sion is clear. The time is now. We must be re­lent­less in turn­ing this vi­sion in­to re­al­i­ty. Hap­py New Year, To­ba­go.”

Mean­while, Mi­nor­i­ty Leader Kelvon Mor­ris lament­ed 2024’s chal­lenges but said he’s op­ti­mistic about the op­por­tu­ni­ties 2025 has in store.

Mor­ris said, “With the dawn of a new year, it is our hope it will bring new op­por­tu­ni­ties. New op­por­tu­ni­ties to work in har­mo­ny for the bet­ter of To­ba­go.

“It is my wish in 2025 that we put aside pet­ty dif­fer­ences and work for the bet­ter­ment of our is­land and peo­ple.”


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