The European Union (EU), with the support of its member states, has granted to the Government of T&T, a total of $210 million (24.15m euros) from the European Development Fund. This will go towards the development and improvement of two of the country’s strategic priorities—tertiary education and the food production sector. Minister of Planning, Economic and Social Restructuring and Gender Affairs Mary King made the disclosure yesterday, during a press conference at the Ministry of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education at the International Waterfront Centre, Wrightson Road, Port-of-Spain. The European Development Fund is the main instrument used by the EU for providing developmental aid to countries which meet the qualifying criteria set by specific targets. King said the grant funding was provided through sector budget support and would be deposited into the Treasury to be invested in the programme objectives of two ministries for the following:
• Ministry of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education—$96 million ($11.116 million euros)—to support the reform, expansion and rationalisation of the non-university tertiary education sector; and
• Ministry of Food Production, Land and Marine Affairs—$114 million ($13.034 million euros)—to provide support to the Government’s programme to exit the sugar industry (Caroni (1975) Ltd) by mitigating its social impact, facilitating the diversification of agricultural production and maintaining environmental stability on the former sugar lands.
King, whose ministry acts as the key negotiator of this international funding, has under her purview, the responsibility of ensuring that the programmes cited by both ministerial sectors are implemented, sustained and fulfil the purposes to which respective funding has been accessed. “We ensure that the development strategies and policies which are conceived at the national and sectoral levels are actually translated into programmes and projects that will be rigorously formulated to reflect our national priorities,” King said. “So we will be monitoring to ensure that the funds go into the projects they have been allocated for and will also monitor its evaluation to ensure they are not stalled and that they progress to their successful end.”
In lauding the EU’s support of more than 60 per cent of the world’s development assistance funding, the Minister Counsellor and Charge d’Affaires, Delegation of the European Union (EU) to T&T, Stelios Christopoulos, said this budgetary support allocated to T&T took into consideration the achievements of two of the country’s key performance indicators. He identified the two as the immense funding ($2.4 billion between 2005 and 2010) for the Government Assistance for Tuition Expenses (Gate), as well as the costly transitional support offered to the nation’s defunct sugar industry and food-diversification incentives. On Christopoulos’ latter citing, Minister of Food Production, Land and Marine Affairs Vasant Bharath reminded those present that the Government had started its drive to distribute leases (two-acre parcels) to “over 7,000” ex-employees of Caroni (1975) Ltd, who had been promised the agricultural land in 2003 as part of their voluntary separation package.
