Business View Caribbean | July 2022

94 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 9, ISSUE 7 you can do here, you learn in the video ‘wah yuh go do.’ This initiative has certainly catapulted the hype of what the people of Mayaro/Rio Claro has to offer. When you access and view those videos, you encounter a number of things you could do when you come to Mayaro.” The region also encourages local entrepreneurship by offering markets and layby booths in the town center. This has allowed citizens to sell local cuisines, local handcraft items, and local produce like the Kernaham watermelons, Ecclesville cocoa and Navet provisions. Even more changes could be coming to Mayaro/ Rio Claro soon, as the Trinidad government has passed a local government reform bill that will give local governing bodies more responsibility and power. This will allow the region to be in charge of its own schools, the collection of taxes, employment and social welfare programs. The use of technology be enhanced and upgraded to help digitize all the local government processes. “We will need to have a more enhanced IT department,” Cozier says. “We will require more resources, more specialized people in terms of accountants, engineers, police. We will have to be really engaged. It will be a lot more responsibility than we had before.” With his new responsibilities, Cozier is hoping that over his time as Chairman of the Regional Corporation, he can make some significant change. “I want to see all departments operating in a more efficient manner,” he says. “Right now, things take too long to happen. We have a lot of structures that don’t have an approved plan. People just build because the system is too slow. The system frustrates people because it takes so long to get a plan approved. If you want to build a house you have to wait five years. I am determined to fix that. The system should help people facilitate and accomplish their goals, not frustrate.”