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Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has launched a scathing at­tack on the En­er­gy Cham­ber of Trinidad and To­ba­go, ac­cus­ing it of serv­ing the in­ter­ests of for­eign multi­na­tion­als and nar­row spe­cial in­ter­ests while un­der­min­ing lo­cal con­trac­tors and State-owned en­er­gy com­pa­nies.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar made the com­ment in re­sponse to ques­tions from Guardian Me­dia on whether she had been in­vit­ed to speak at the En­er­gy Con­fer­ence and if a di­rec­tive had been is­sued for State en­er­gy com­pa­nies to with­draw their spon­sor­ship or par­tic­i­pa­tion. She made it clear she has no in­ter­est in en­gag­ing with the cur­rent En­er­gy Cham­ber, de­scrib­ing it as un­rep­re­sen­ta­tive, self-serv­ing and harm­ful to na­tion­al in­ter­ests.

“The cur­rent En­er­gy Cham­ber is struc­tured to on­ly serve the pri­or­i­ties of the for­eign multi­na­tion­als and se­lect lo­cal spe­cial in­ter­est groups. I do not be­lieve that the cur­rent En­er­gy Cham­ber rep­re­sents and ad­vo­cates for the best in­ter­ests of our State-owned com­pa­nies and our lo­cal busi­ness­es and con­trac­tors,” the Prime Min­is­ter said.