By Clint Chan Tack Friday, September 10 2010

FINANCE MINISTER Winston Dookeran yesterday defended the Government’s decision to scrap the controversial Alutrint aluminium smelter project, despite acknowledging that it would have implications which the Government would have to address.

In an interview with reporters from all three daily newspapers (Newsday, Express and Guardian) at his office at the Eric Williams Financial Complex, Port-of-Spain, Dookeran said, “The nation has got to cut its losses and move on. We can’t have these losses as burdens for all times. We took a judgment call (on Alutrint).”

He explained the Government made its decision based on whether the Alutrint project was viable, whether it was the proper use of the country’s natural gas reserves and the mandate it received from the people on May 24 that they wanted no part of that kind of development.

Dookeran said the positive effect which has emerged from the Alutrint issue is the new TGU power plant that was built in La Brea to provide electricity for the smelter and the public.

The minister said the plant “provides a basis for a new strategy for building the southwest peninsula” together with the port that was being constructed for the smelter. He explained Government intends to establish an industrial estate on the former site of the smelter and was confident it would generate sustainable jobs for the residents of the surrounding communities.

Dookeran said terminating the Alutrint project will have implications but he believed they could be solved using “both diplomatic and commercial solutions.” He added diplomacy would be required with respect to a loan arrangement for the project which was negotiated between the former PNM government and the Chinese government. The details of the Alutrint contract were never revealed by the former Patrick Manning administration.

Dookeran disagreed with the view that the establishment of an industrial estate would require more natural gas than what was earmarked for the Alutrint smelter. Reiterating it was never an issue about aluminium, Dookeran said this was not a case of a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush because “the bird in the hand may not be able to sustain you for the future.”