AMCHAM CONFERENCE LOOKS AT T&T'S NON-ENERGY SECTOR

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 *********************** * 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