It is the home of Steelpan, Calypso and the Caribbean's most colorful carnival. Trinidad and Tobago is also the home of Penny Comissiung, Miss Universe 1977, and Wendy Fitzwilliam, Miss Universe 1998. And now, the Twenth Allen Republic at the southern tip of the Caribbean will be the home of the last Miss Universe pageant of this century. We are trying to develop Trinidad to be able to be a total coordination. And in pursuit of excellence, we have to make that quantum leap. We're using the patent as a sort of catalyst to make that quantum leap. The country that overflows with natural beauty will be host to beauties for more than 80 countries. The event is called it for May 26th and will be seen in 120 countries by an estimated TV audience of about 2.5 billion. Organizers are hopeful that the pageant will not only showcase the country's diverse culture. They're inviting some pretty weighty VIPs like Donald Trump, Muhammad Al-Fayed and others with more than just the pageant in mind. Essentially, we are taking the opportunity while they're entwined out for the pageant to show them some of the investment opportunities. As you may be aware, Mr. Trump is heavily involved in real estate and he has already indicated an interest in resort real estate development. The venue for the Galley event will be called the center of the universe. But it is actually an old military facility. Architects and engineers are transforming this boat hanger built in 1941 into a Hollywood set complete with bleacher type seating for about 4,000 spectators. And we have three four separate projects going on here right now to bring the whole hanger complex together for the pageant we expect to bring everything together by the middle of April when the Miss Universe technical people arrive to start putting in their equipment. The inside will be draped with black velvet and other material according to Miss Universe ink specifications to create the stage and hide the fact that the venue was till a hanger. There will be no permanent structures on the hanger since the pageant committee is renting the site until the night of the show. The attention will help upgrade Trinidad's facilities. What's happening here, this whole thing has sparked a movement, an upgrading of the infrastructure. The phone system is being upgraded from 600 lines to 2,600 lines. The power system, the power grid is going to have triple redundancy out here now whereas it didn't have before. The hanger gets a new roof, it gets some new washrooms for the tenant. The pageant committee itself includes locals from a broad cross-section of Trinidad and Tobago from the private sector to government ministries to the media. They all head back to their respective jobs after the show. Fones at the pageant centre have been ringing off the hook at a rate of at least 100 calls per day and for those eager for more information about the show. We are using three means of access for accessing of information. Through the internet, we have a website, through our embassies overseas. We are also using Rubenstein of New York, who are the PL Consumption of the Universe in Cooperation to promote the pageant. One parliamentarian says the show will be the nation's golden opportunity for international exposure since the world's eyes will be focused on the Twin Island Republic for the two weeks leading up to and including the pageant. To me, this is an extraordinary opportunity to capture the flavour, the culture, the music, the dance, and all that belongs to Trinidad and Tobago in our capsule. The total cost to pull this off is $9 million US dollars. It seems our entire nation, population 1.3 million, is at least in some way animated about this. We are all keeping our fingers crossed that the crown worn by Miss Universe 1999 will not be the only thing shining on the night of May 26th. Jared Sysnet, TTT News for the CNN World Report.