Budget to reflect reform agenda

The 2013 Budget will present a clear view of Government’s reform agenda and how it intends to move beyond its current economic position, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said yesterday. She was speaking during yesterday’s first sitting of the House of Representatives whose new parliamentary term was officially opened at the International Waterfront Centre, Wrightson Road, Port-of-Spain.

“When the national budget is presented, the nation will have a very clear view of the reform agenda we have undertaken, how it has progressed and how we intend to move beyond the corner the IMF acknowledged that we were able to turn,” Persad-Bissessar said. The PM also took the opportunity to welcome several newly-appointed ministers, including Finance Minister Larry Howai.

She also thanked former senators John Sandy, Nicole Dyer-Griffith, Verna St Rose-Greaves and Danny Maharaj, saying their contributions helped to place the Government on a more solid footing. Persad-Bissessar said the recent Cabinet reshuffle had “assembled experience more appropriately with talent” and also outlined the Government’s legislative agenda, saying it included security and law enforcement legislation and other measures to help the economy grow.

She listed legislation to add private security firms to security force numbers, for penal reform, to revamp prison rules and to use speed-trap guns on the nation’s highways. The PM also noted legislation was in the works for the energy sector and it also included the beverage container law, air pollution rules, laws to protect turtles and the environment and others to regulate car emissions and to detect errant drivers, cameras to spot speeding motorists and an anti-doping law for sport.