A ma­jor air­line has de­clined to launch di­rect flights to To­ba­go and the US Nu­cor steel man­u­fac­tur­ing gi­ant has al­so re­ject­ed the Gov­ern­ment’s of­fer to ex­pand lo­cal in­vest­ment due to crime, says Trade Min­is­ter Satyaka­ma Ma­haraj.

Ma­haraj stressed that the Home In­va­sion (Self-De­fence and De­fence of Prop­er­ty) Bill is nec­es­sary to se­cure in­vest­ment.

“For those who say this leg­is­la­tion is dra­con­ian, this is what we want to show the lo­cal pop­u­la­tion and in­vestors - that we’re tak­ing a hard­line, se­ri­ous ap­proach to crime,” Ma­haraj said dur­ing Tues­day’s de­bate on the bill.