Business
as usual?
Port Spain
Petroleumworldtt.com
11 18 07
With the General Election behind us, business
organisations are talking about a range of issues:
the proposed State-owned and operated rapid rail
system and the introduction of the water ferry
service between San Fernando and Port-of- Spain
and the need for the new Administration to deal
with such questions as transparency, liquidity,
health and the encouragement of savings.
It
is a resumption of the private sector’s
continuing to impress on Government the need to
maintain and expand its ongoing level of intervention,
a contributory factor in the development and carrying
forward of Trinidad and Tobago.
The
introduction of the planned rapid rail system
will supposedly ensure that scores get to their
work places, according to Government pitch but
this project is dogged with controversy on transparency
issues. There should be full transparency, as indeed
there must be with respect to all areas of the
new Administration’s spending.
But
the biggest threat to the economy is inflation — and
crime. Central Bank has acted to sap the liquidity
created by government spending on massive projects
but it cannot continue to do so. The Central Bank
Governor has spoken about being on a slippery slope
when inflation hit 10%. For all its bravado, the
Government must see the red flashing lights on
the dashboard.
The
new Government should arrange to meet as early
as possible with representatives of the various
stakeholders, including business, industry, labour,
to explain to them the new Administration’s
plans for the next five years, how it intends to
achieve them and how these will impact on the country’s
development in the short, medium and long term.
Of significant interest, too, will be laying the
groundwork for taking Trinidad and Tobago forward
after the country’s crude oil and natural
gas deposits run out.
This,
perhaps, is going to be the biggest challenge
for us all. The Government must have the “cohones” to
drive the diversification of the economy — or
we could end up staring down the end of a long
barrel. With more energy projects lined up and
billions of foreign exchange coming in, it is easy
to forget the risks associated with pushing one
button: LNG, and to a lesser extent oil. It is
a road that we don’t want to be on, if only
because all the economic gains made could be eroded.
There
are reasons to be cheerful. Already, there has
been talk of developing the country into the
financial services centre of the Caribbean. In
turn, should the new Government meet with stakeholders,
it should advise them of its plans with respect
to two critical issues — making the full
implementation of the Caribbean Single Market and
Economy (CSME) a reality and urging on them the
need for the introduction of a realistic wages
policy.
Government
should also initiate discussions with the Opposition
United National Congress on making
fully operational the CSME — and marketing
the idea to other Caribbean countries who may still
have reservations about a full blown CSME.
This, in light of the end of preferential quota
entry status of sugar and bananas under the Convention
of Lome and the increasingly restrictive rules
of the World Trade Organisation.
Story
from Trinidad & Tobago Newsday
Trinidad & Tobago
Newsday
Thursday, November 15 2007
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