Trinidad may offer India access to more LNG

Kolkata: The Prime Minister of the Trinidad and Tobago, Ms Kamla Persad-Bissessar, on Tuesday said that her country is keen to attract Indian fashion, entertainment, education, agriculture-technology and maritime industries. Though she did not make any direct commitment, she indicated Trinidad and Tobago may “offer” India access to the much needed LNG (liquefied natural gas).

Talking to select journalists over dinner in Kolkata, Ms Bissessar, the Indian origin, first woman Prime Minister of the republic of 13 million people, said that the Caribbean nation has policies in place, to offer India (or any other nation of its choice) more LNG.

The meeting was organised by the Global Organisation for People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) in collaboration with Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Trinidad and Tobago owns majority stake in the oil and gas fields. India's LNG imports from the country have come down in the recent years. Though Ms Bissessar did not confirm if Indian imports from the Caribbean should witness an improvement, she was clear that she would explore possibilities.

Reiterating her interest in strengthening economic social bonding with world's largest democracy, the Prime Minister said that her country is keen to project itself as a “location” for Bollywood films. “We are looking at Bollywood to come to Trinidad and Tobago in a big way.”

Also high on the priority list is attracting high profile Indian fashion designers to Trinidad. “I have met some reputed fashion designers from India and they promised to participate in the fashion week in October 2012,” she said.

Ms Bissessar was in the city to pay tribute to “The Kolkata Memorial” — created on January 11 last year at Kidderpore dock in the city, in memory of the Indian labourers taken to far away lands by the Britishers from 1834 through the 1920s. She also visited her ancestral village in Buxur district in Bihar.