Senior Reporter
andrea.perez-sobers@guardian.co.tt
As long as Indian businessman Naveen Jindal is clean and clear to conduct economic activity and business transactions in this country, he should be allowed to invest in the mothballed Petrotrin refinery at Pointe-a-Pierre.
These were the sentiments expressed by economist Professor Roger Hosein when asked by reporters yesterday whether Jindal should be given an opportunity to bid for the refinery. On Monday, Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar claimed that Jindal is on bail in India for corruption and money laundering charges.
“Well, I wouldn’t know much about the legal aspect of it. I would say if the checks were done and he is clean then by all means invest in the refinery. But if it is he has some kind of problem or case hanging over his head and the courts have to deal with it, well then, we look for someone else.
“My intervention is not with the specific person. I am concerned about the refinery reopening and should we find an investor, I would say by all means gladly open the refinery,” Hosein highlighted.
He pointed out that economic activity around the refinery has fallen by about 40 per cent and if the country could get a foreign investor, using private sector capital, to restart the refinery by all means restart the refinery.
“Once it does not depend on the state for handouts or any type of subventions, I will fully restart the refinery. So that’s not a question that we should ponder too much on.” Further, the economist said it will help to create employment in the fenceline communities, and it will also create the demand for other types of goods in the community.
“So should we be able to pull that off, the restart of the refinery, that would be an important intervention and that would help boost economic activity and not only economic activity. Remember these people will be coming here and they would have the intention of selling the refined product and it will help generate foreign exchange and that’s something we don’t have a lot of right now,” Hosein stressed.
He added that it would help create backward and forward linkages for other types of goods in the economy.
According to international media reports, in 2013, India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) charged Jindal and former coal minister Dasari Rao for allegedly misallocating mining rights. Indian authorities claimed kickbacks were paid by Jindal to then-minister Rao in exchange for mining rights for coal.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said he found it strange that the same people (Opposition) who continuously chastise his government for not generating enough direct foreign investment are now the ones who have a problem with Jindal expressing interest in the refinery.
During the PNM’s Sports and Family Day in San Fernando on Sunday, Rowley said the Cabinet will soon form a committee to evaluate the proposals. The committee will report to the country at the end of August.
“But there seems to be an attempt to dissuade foreigners from investing in T&T,” Dr Rowley said yesterday.
“Interestingly enough, it’s coming from the same people who would say from time to time there is not enough direct foreign investment. One of the failures of the Government is that we need more direct foreign investment. Are we not getting it? And lo and behold, we now have the potential for foreign investment from a place where there are people who want to invest abroad and who are investing abroad, and we are saying, well, if you’re investing in Oman and Qatar and Dubai and staying wherever you are, consider T&T. And that seems to be upsetting some people.”