New­ly ap­point­ed Min­is­ter of Cul­ture and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment Michelle Ben­jamin has sig­nalled her in­ten­tion to pri­ori­tise cul­tur­al preser­va­tion and stronger com­mu­ni­ty pro­grammes as she be­gan her tenure on May 5.

In an in­tro­duc­to­ry meet­ing at the Min­istry’s head of­fice in Port of Spain, Ben­jamin out­lined plans to work close­ly with stake­hold­ers to de­liv­er prac­ti­cal re­sults, with a fo­cus on em­pow­er­ing com­mu­ni­ties and en­hanc­ing the reach of cul­tur­al ini­tia­tives na­tion­wide.

She said the Min­istry would tar­get projects that pre­serve na­tion­al her­itage while strength­en­ing sup­port for lo­cal de­vel­op­ment.

Ben­jamin was ac­com­pa­nied by Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary Dr Narindra Roop­nar­ine.