Minister, with all due respect, your statement that local builders must look beyond Trinidad and Tobago is sending the wrong message at a time when this country should be encouraging local enterprise, innovation and industrial development.
Not now, Mr. Minister!
We are constantly being told that the Government is pursuing economic growth, that opportunities are emerging in the oil and gas sector, that jobs will be created and that foreign investors are showing interest in Trinidad and Tobago. A delegation has even travelled to Venezuela to explore opportunities. Yet, at home, what message are we sending when we are discussing the sale of established national assets such as Hilton Trinidad and Lake Asphalt?
Are we telling our citizens that these enterprises are no longer viable? Are we admitting that we cannot manage, modernise or reinvent businesses that have contributed to our economy?
What happened to developing local capacity and creating opportunities for our own people?
We have chemical engineers, scientists and technical professionals, including expertise associated with CARIRI and our University of the West Indies. Are we seriously suggesting that we cannot bring these minds together to develop new products, explore alternative uses for our natural resources and create something with international market potential?
Look at China. Its industrial development demonstrates what can happen when research, innovation, manufacturing and investment are brought together. Why should we automatically assume that foreign manufacturers can identify opportunities in our resources that our own professionals cannot?
Mr. Minister, before telling our local builders and businesses to look beyond Trinidad and Tobago, perhaps we should first examine why we are not doing enough to create opportunities right here at home.
We cannot preach job creation, economic diversification and local participation while simultaneously giving the impression that our own enterprises and professional capabilities have limited potential.
A country cannot build confidence in its economy while its own leadership appears to have so little confidence in what its people can produce.
Trinidad and Tobago needs a vision that goes beyond selling assets and attracting foreign investors. We need to build, manufacture, innovate and export.
The question is not whether our local businesses should look abroad. The question is: What is the Government doing to make Trinidad and Tobago a country worth investing in, building in and manufacturing from?
Gordon Laughlin,
Westmoorings
