Basdeo Panday to speak at GM&SA awards ceremony

Mar 05, 2014 News

Former Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Basdeo Panday, is slated to be the keynote speaker at tomorrow’s 18th Annual Awards Presentation and Dinner (APAD) of the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GM&SA).
According to the association, the event to be held in the Savannah Suite of the Guyana Pegasus Hotel, will also see 10 companies- small, medium and large scale- receiving awards for “exceptional achievements in 2013”.

Former T&T PM, Basdeo Panday

A number of longstanding industrialists will also be awarded.
“The selected companies have recorded tremendous achievements in recent months in the areas of innovation, export market penetration and investments.”
Among the invitees of the event will be President Donald Ramotar, members of the Diplomatic Corps, Ministers of Government, and representatives of the Opposition and the business community.
GM&SA said that the event is the highlight of its annual calendar of activities.
“This year it serves as a fitting culmination to the GMSA’s six-month celebration of its 50th Anniversary as a business support organisation. The main purpose of the APAD is to publicly recognize and award companies and organizations that have achieved international “Quality” certification, penetration of new export markets, introduced new or non-traditional products and services, and recorded unprecedented growth. “
Regarding Panday, 80, GM&SA said that he is an experienced trade unionist and a politician for more than 40 years. “He is the erstwhile leader of Trinidad’s sitting governmental party, the United National Congress (UNC), and has served the Trinidadian parliament on both sides of the floor. Mr. Basdeo, a respected orator, is slated to speak on the subject of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).”
Panday was the fifth Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago from 1995 to 2001 and has served as Leader of the Opposition from time to time starting from 1976.
In 2006, Panday was convicted of failing to declare a bank account in London and was imprisoned, but as of March 20, 2007, that conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal. He was granted bail on April 28 of that same year pending the outcome of his appeal due to his health condition and the poor state of health facilities at the Arouca prison.
On May 1, 2007 he decided to resign as Chairman of the United National Congress, but the party’s executive refused to accept his resignation. However, he lost the party’s internal elections on January 24, 2010 to Deputy Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, the current Prime Minister.