JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Sunday, May 4, 2025

PM: Sandals pull-out would be a disaster

by

Shaliza Hassanali
2375 days ago
20181101

Veda Bissram

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has ad­mit­ted that T&T’s back will be against a wall if San­dals Re­sorts pulls out of build­ing two ho­tels in To­ba­go.

Row­ley made the com­ment at Thurs­day’s post-Cab­i­net me­dia brief­ing at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre, St Ann’s, as he gave an up­date on the San­dals project, say­ing quite a few de­trac­tors have been say­ing the Gov­ern­ment has not been fol­low­ing prop­er pro­cure­ment process­es with San­dals In­ter­na­tion­al since sign­ing a Mem­o­ran­dum of Un­der­stand­ing last year.

“We have no in­for­ma­tion to hide. Those who are push­ing this sto­ry about se­cre­cy...half of them are mis­chie­vous and the oth­er half is not fa­mil­iar with the con­duct of pub­lic busi­ness.”

While Row­ley took re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for invit­ing San­dals to es­tab­lish its brand on our shores, he said, “If San­dals does not do it (go for­ward with the project)...it is no skin off their nose. But it is go­ing to be a lot of skin off our el­bow. We would have to turn around and say what else do we do and who else do we talk to?

“We spent hun­dreds of mil­lions of dol­lars in try­ing to ad­ver­tise To­ba­go and got noth­ing in the process.”

He not­ed the To­ba­go Cham­ber of Com­merce was de­mand­ing that the Gov­ern­ment spend $120 mil­lion in “des­ti­na­tion mar­ket­ing with no guar­an­tee of suc­cess.”

As they ap­proach the project step-by-step, Row­ley said what the pub­lic is be­ing told is that the agree­ments be­tween the Gov­ern­ment and San­dals should be made pub­lic, as a se­cret deal was be­ing bro­kered.

“For the umpteenth time, we have not ne­go­ti­at­ed any terms and con­di­tions with San­dals. We are just at the stage to do that.”

Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Min­is­ter Stu­art Young in­ter­ject­ed, say­ing Gov­ern­ment was now mak­ing progress with San­dals. He said what was agreed up­on was that the Gov­ern­ment will build two ho­tels, which San­dals will man­age. Hav­ing held dis­cus­sions with San­dals yes­ter­day, Young said they are go­ing to pro­ceed to the next stage where San­dals will send them a draft com­mer­cial and man­age­ment agree­ment, which they hope to sign off next month. Up­on fi­nal­i­sa­tion of the agree­ment, Young said both sides are “pre­pared to dis­close what terms and con­di­tions that can be dis­closed.”

Young ad­mit­ted, how­ev­er, that they were at a sen­si­tive stage of the arrange­ment. He said this was the first time San­dals was en­ter­ing “in­to this type of arrange­ment. So it is a new arrange­ment for them.”

While Row­ley said the Gov­ern­ment has been ea­ger to move for­ward with the project, he said the last thing they want to hear is “there is noth­ing to pro­ceed with be­cause that would be the dis­as­ter.”

Row­ley said the ini­tial best case was to have San­dals take eq­ui­ty in the project “to be part own­er.”

San­dals, how­ev­er, in­di­cat­ed they were not open to that mod­el and “that was the deal break­er.”

The PM said, “If there are oth­er per­sons who want to take eq­ui­ty in the project, the Gov­ern­ment has said you are wel­comed. In fact, we have in­vit­ed lo­cal busi­ness hous­es...three of them...two of them in­di­cat­ed that they might be in­ter­est­ed in tak­ing eq­ui­ty in the project.”

This, he said, was a first for T&T.

“If Neal and Massy de­cides to take some eq­ui­ty in that project the Gov­ern­ment would be very hap­py.”

He said ANSA McAL said they were not in­ter­est­ed, which they un­der­stood.

“Guardian Life said we may be in­ter­est­ed. But in­ter­est­ed in what? We have to show them what the project is.”

He said the Gov­ern­ment would have to show those busi­ness­es the prof­itabil­i­ty and vi­a­bil­i­ty of the project “and on­ly then these busi­ness­es would be in a po­si­tion to say how much they are will­ing to in­vest.”


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored