Secretary of Finance, Trade and the Economy in the Tobago House of Assembly, Petal Ann Roberts, says with the THA set to present its 2026/2027 budget in under two weeks, the island is preparing to launch the first phase of a four-year blueprint aimed at strengthening resilience across key sectors.
Anchored by a new four-year roadmap, the “Pathway for Prosperity Blueprint”, and supported by TT$164 million redirected towards national development, Tobago is moving towards a more self-reliant and sustainable future.
According to Secretary Roberts, the Blueprint, which spans 2026 to 2030, will begin this year with the roll-out of its first phase, targeting development across several critical sectors.
“We want to build out a strong institutional capacity, and what that means is that the public service must be modern and efficient, it means that we going to be doing a lot of training using digitisation and AI tools to bolster public service delivery. We’re going to focus on climate resilience, climate adaptation and environmental sustainability in everything that we do.”
Looking ahead to Government’s Mid-Year Budget Review, Ms Roberts noted that in addition to the TT$2.9 billion allocated to Tobago in the 2025/26 fiscal budget, she expects an additional TT$79 million to be provided, which will allow for the payment of teachers’ arrears.
“Teachers, they had their collective bargaining agreement, they received their increase. So it is the time where we roll out and pay them what is due to them so I expect we will get that at the mid-year. So teachers will be getting their arrears on the last agreement that was signed off.”
She also noted that while Government was unable to allocate the full amount initially requested for national development, efforts are underway to secure additional funding from international and private-sector partners.
“We are also looking at the private international bodies and the banks and the development agencies for funding, not only for finances but for technical assistance because we want to do some things on our own.”
Secretary Roberts added that as Tobago continues its push towards greater autonomy, the island remains committed to a people-centred approach to development.