Money-laundering and other organised crime share the blame for the current high incidence of criminal activity, Minister of Finance Karen Nunez-Tesheira said yesterday.

She made the comment as she announced she was piloting a Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) bill to help offset the record level of crime and that the bill was already before Parliament.

Speaking at the American Chamber of Industry and Commerce of Trinidad and Tobago’s annual post-budget panel discussion at the Hilton Trinidad in St Ann’s, Nunez-Tesheira said the bill required the support of the Opposition before it could be actualised.

She said the bill encompassed the controversial breathalyser testing, which also requires a majority vote.

’It is a question of patriotism, which is often unfortunately subverted for another agenda,’ she explained.

The Minister noted that increased competition from energy-intensive countries like Russia and Qatar meant that Trinidad and Tobago needed to diversify its income stream. To this end, Nunez-Tesheira said the Government recognised the importance of the agribusiness sector.

’Employment in the agriculture business is up 31 per cent,’ she explained, adding that more than 21,000 new people joined the agriculture business in the past year.

’Let me state for the record that we are not going ahead with the Rapid Rail project at this point,’ Nunez-Tesheira said, adding that the infrastructure work will focus on water, electricity, transportation networks and the Port of Trinidad and Tobago.