Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07PORTOFSPAIN2
2007-01-03 12:06:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Port Of Spain
Cable title:
AMCHAM CONFERENCE LOOKS AT T&T'S NON-ENERGY SECTOR
how-toVZCZCXRO6307 RR RUEHWEB DE RUEHSP #0002/02 0031206 ZNR UUUUU ZZH R 031206Z JAN 07 ZDK CITE RUEHZC 0313 FM AMEMBASSY PORT OF SPAIN TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7730 INFO RUEHRC/USDA FAS WASHDC 0267 RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC RUEHRC/AMEMBASSY ATO CARIBBEAN RUCNCOM/EC CARICOM COLLECTIVE
UNCLAS SECTION 02 OF 02 PORT OF SPAIN 000002
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECON EAGR EFIN EIND ELAB TD
SUBJECT: AMCHAM CONFERENCE LOOKS AT T&T'S NON-ENERGY SECTOR
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* Missing Section 001 *
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PORT OF SP 00000002 002 OF 002
competitiveness and innovation, like R&D and manpower training, in
the seven industries targeted by the GOTT: yachting; fish and fish
processing; merchant marine; music and entertainment; film; food and
beverage; and printing and packaging.
6. Noting that T&T's competitiveness was sliding in global surveys,
final speaker Dr. Rolph Balgobin provided his thoughts on how T&T
could create a more "enabling environment" to increase
competitiveness and productivity. He called for more ownership,
responsibility, education, and parenting at the individual level,
and stressed the family's role in instilling discipline and values
as well as a taste for risk, which is needed for innovation. He
believed individual citizens needed to stop focusing on what they
can get or on potentially meaningless certifications and instead
focus on what they can contribute. At the firm level, he saw the
need to foster a culture of knowledge and real "value-added" rather
than simply buying and selling. He suggested that entrepreneurs
needed the opportunity to be creative, and he called on GOTT to
facilitate business startups. Finally, in order to improve the
quality of the public sector, he believed that the current
compensation mismatch between the private and public sectors needed
readjustment.
7. COMMENT: Recent inflation, driven largely by food prices, has
raised awareness of the agricultural sector's decline over the last
25 years. While the government's 2007 budget prioritized the
agricultural sector, short term anti-inflation measures such as
suspending the tariff on imported chicken parts have dismayed local
farmers, and the longer term proposal to establish ten large-scale
farms risks crowding out existing producers. END COMMENT.
AUSTIN
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECON EAGR EFIN EIND ELAB TD
SUBJECT: AMCHAM CONFERENCE LOOKS AT T&T'S NON-ENERGY SECTOR
***********************
* Missing Section 001 *
***********************
PORT OF SP 00000002 002 OF 002
competitiveness and innovation, like R&D and manpower training, in
the seven industries targeted by the GOTT: yachting; fish and fish
processing; merchant marine; music and entertainment; film; food and
beverage; and printing and packaging.
6. Noting that T&T's competitiveness was sliding in global surveys,
final speaker Dr. Rolph Balgobin provided his thoughts on how T&T
could create a more "enabling environment" to increase
competitiveness and productivity. He called for more ownership,
responsibility, education, and parenting at the individual level,
and stressed the family's role in instilling discipline and values
as well as a taste for risk, which is needed for innovation. He
believed individual citizens needed to stop focusing on what they
can get or on potentially meaningless certifications and instead
focus on what they can contribute. At the firm level, he saw the
need to foster a culture of knowledge and real "value-added" rather
than simply buying and selling. He suggested that entrepreneurs
needed the opportunity to be creative, and he called on GOTT to
facilitate business startups. Finally, in order to improve the
quality of the public sector, he believed that the current
compensation mismatch between the private and public sectors needed
readjustment.
7. COMMENT: Recent inflation, driven largely by food prices, has
raised awareness of the agricultural sector's decline over the last
25 years. While the government's 2007 budget prioritized the
agricultural sector, short term anti-inflation measures such as
suspending the tariff on imported chicken parts have dismayed local
farmers, and the longer term proposal to establish ten large-scale
farms risks crowding out existing producers. END COMMENT.
AUSTIN