00:00The Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce held its post-budget meeting on Tuesday at the Hyatt Regency,
00:07the day after the finance minister delivered the government's budget statement in the parliament for its new financial year.
00:13During the panel discussion, concerns were raised about two key issues with regard to economic activity in Trinidad and Tobago for fiscal 2025.
00:23Those concerns were raised by economist and former independent senator Amrita Deonarine.
00:29For some reason, we always end up looping back to this problem of not only crime but the problem of foreign exchange as well.
00:39Unless we lift or remove those two binding constraints or constraints to growth in our country,
00:47then all these policies, all the dedication that is going into crafting policies to diversify the economy,
00:55to attract foreign direct investment, to grow the labor force, to improve the quality of the labor force,
01:04to improve productivity in the country, it's not going to happen until we deal with those two issues.
01:11The moderator of the panel discussion, the chamber's president, Kiran Miraj,
01:15made a startling revelation regarding what she identified as potential investments in the local economy that did not occur.
01:23I know that we have lost investors because I have three cases now.
01:28Two weeks ago I had two. Now I have a third case of investors saying the crime situation is one of the reasons why they don't want to come right now.
01:38You know, they're going to go somewhere else and they'll see what happens in two or three years.
01:42If they're going to expand, they'll take a look at Trinidad.
01:45But we've lost a couple million U.S. as a result of that.
01:50So it is crippling us, no matter what anybody says it is, and we have to do something about it.
01:55Finance Minister Colm Imbert announced several new anti-crime measures for fiscal 2025,
02:00including the addition of 2,000 vehicles to the fleet of the police service over the next three years,
02:06with 500 vehicles expected in the first phase and what he called a special anti-crime operation unit.
02:13The Chamber's president said crime is an economic adversary that erodes the very foundation of the nation's prosperity.
02:20We know that there is no one solution.
02:23We need to launch an attack that addresses all the arms of this chaotic octopus.
02:29In my mind, I see eight arms.
02:32Socio-economic factors, law enforcement, legislation and judiciary, the prison system,
02:39community engagement, technology utilization, policy coordination, and education and youth prevention.
02:48But there were also expressions of optimism about the potential for investments.
02:53That was the focus of the presentation by Invest TT president Sekou Alain.
02:58Having sat as Invest TT president for some time, that aspect of competitiveness of Trinidad and Tobago
03:04from an investment standpoint, both for local and foreign,
03:07because local investors in Trinidad also invest in other regional destinations, has always been very important.
03:13And so the creation of the Trinidad and Tobago Trade and Investment Promotion Agency
03:19is a significant strengthening of the institutional framework for the facilitation of exports
03:26and the facilitation of investments.
03:28The finance minister had announced the recent establishment of a new state agency
03:33through the amalgamation of export and investment promotion services
03:37previously managed by state-owned companies, including Invest TT and Export TT.
03:43Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
