Business, education, labour and civil society groups got together yesterday for dialogue on the current economic crisis and called on Government and the private sector to re-evaluate their knee-jerk responses and adjustments to the recession.
Among those taking part in the discussion was former Energy Minister Conrad Enill who described 2016 as an "awakening" for T&T, and claimed the country had been in a recession since 2010, although it was only publicised late last year.
Enill was part of the four-member panel that discussed the recession and the nation's reaction to it. He said the word recession was enough to negatively affect society as people immediately envisaged "a sense of doom and gloom."
Also taking part in the discussion, hosted by the CTS College of Business and Computer Science Limited at the Hyatt Regency, Port-of-Spain, were president of the Chaguanas Chamber of Commerce Richie Sookhai; economist and lecturer at the University of the West Indies Dr Vaalmikki Arjoon; CEO of Human Resources Technologies Courtney McNish; and chief education and research officer of the Oilfield Workers Trade Union Ozzy Warwick.
Enill said while many people expected Government to do something to end the recession, it is up to individuals and organisations to change the current situation.
Moderator Sookhai called for a fresh approach to dealing with issues such as low oil prices, declining business confidence and the foreign exchange shortage.
While he commended Government for establishing the National Tripartite Commission, Sookhai appealed for a review of the make-up of the committee as he said it should reflect the wider concerns of the citizens.
He also called for more foreign exchange to be made available to the business community as this was hindering them from freely engaging with foreign-based suppliers, which had led to the general slowdown affecting local businesses.
Sookhai, who expressed concern at Government's withdrawal from the Heritage and Stabilization Fund without "the apparent and requisite levels of transparency and accountability" added: "Government cannot look to raise revenue only by increasing or imposing new taxes on the population." Arjoon said low energy prices coupled with a slow down in production, insufficient diversification and inadequate financial planning had to led to T&T's current economic state. He said this had been further compounded by a fragile fiscal policy as the last budget had seen government introduce measures aimed at increasing revenue and procuring sustainable financing for the State.
With a reduced state expenditure of seven per cent and a widened tax base in the form of increased VAT collections and business and Green Fund levies, Arjoon said the Central Bank policy rate had increased to 4.75 per cent last year–a 73 per cent increase since August 2014. He said it was possible that during the second half of this year, there could ne a further increase by 50 basis points, bringing the rate to 5.25 per cent.
He said all this was being done to curb capital flight and combat inflation, in light of the T&T dollar's depreciation and the resumption of rate hikes in the United States.
Warwick said declining oil prices had only highlighted the scale of the problem as "Trinidad and Tobago has been shrinking for a while now."
He said the trade union movement is open to dialogue but the burden had to be shared by all. He said it was unfair that workers alone are being made to bear the fallout from the recession.