DOMA’s president Gregory Aboud

Downtown Owners and Merchants’ Association (DOMA) is anxious about arrangements for the Commonwealth leaders’ conference scheduled for November in Port-of-Spain, since the city will be then in the height of pre-Christmas activities, DOMA’s president Gregory Aboud says. Aboud said yesterday that downtown businesses had experienced between a 30 and 40 per cent reduction (year on year) during April, when the Summit of the Americas was held in Port of Spain. This particularly occurred when summit practice “runs” were held and roads into the city were closed off that month. The Commonwealth Heads of Government conference (CHOGM) takes place in Port-of-Spain between November 27 and 29.

At a media briefing last week, Foreign Affairs Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon said consideration was being given to hosting some aspects in Tobago. Other conference organisers assured that discussions would be held with all stakeholders on CHOGM much earlier than occurred with the Americas Summit. Aboud said yesterday: “We’re awaiting interaction. Anxiety levels among Port-of-Spain/regional businesses are much higher than it was for the Summit of the Americas, considering how severely we were affected by that.” Aboud said the November weekend chosen for CHOGM was the last monthend weekend before Christmas. He added: “It is considered to be the very peak of distributive and retails sector business. Also then, activity at the port is several multiples higher than it is during April.

“The Americas summit occurred in the middle of a very slow month, yet it had tremendous disruptive effects on the north-west peninsula.” Aboud said whereas month-to-month business in the retail sector had been running at between 7 and 15 per cent below average, reports received by DOMA indicated that downtown businesses experienced between a 30 and 40 per cent reduction (year on year) for April. “When the summit organisers held their dry run on March 29 , it caused massive gridlock in the East/West Corridor. “We were advised by hundreds of regular customers that they would not come to Port-of-Spain for the two weeks prior to the summit. “On the Saturday of the summit, we received complaints from Chaguaramas businesses, who said they sustained losses, as neither customers nor supplies could travel.”

“The closing of the crucial Wrightson Road artery paralysed the entire north-west peninsula. Therefore, closing Wrightson Road for CHOGM—on the last monthend before Christmas—should be attracting the attention of everyone responsible for traffic management and protection of commercial enterprise from dislocation.” Aboud said holding CHOGM’s opening ceremony in the Performing Arts Academy on Queen’s Park Savannah “would shift a tremendous logistical burden from the crucial southern sector of Port-of-Spain to the northern perimeter, “where road closures should not have the same disastrous effect as in April.”