The Cab­i­net-ap­point­ed Na­tion­al Eco­nom­ic Re­cov­ery Com­mit­tee will soon have the re­sults of a re­cent busi­ness sur­vey—con­duct­ed joint­ly by the Trinidad and To­ba­go Coali­tion of Ser­vices In­dus­tries (TTC­SI) and the Trinidad and To­ba­go Man­u­fac­tur­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTMA)—to add to its de­lib­er­a­tions.

A state­ment is­sued by the TTC­SI in­di­cates that the sur­vey’s out­comes will help the Com­mit­tee in its rec­om­men­da­tions to strength­en the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty, in the post-COVID-19 pe­ri­od.

The full state­ment is­sued by the TTC­SI, fol­lows…

SER­VICES AND MAN­U­FAC­TUR­ING SEC­TORS IN FO­CUS

Port of Spain, Trinidad; May 5th 2020:-  Firms across the ser­vices and man­u­fac­tur­ing sec­tors have a keen de­sire to col­lab­o­rate with Gov­ern­ment and Busi­ness Sup­port Or­gan­i­sa­tions to move to­wards the path of re­cov­ery.

This is the con­clu­sion of a joint sur­vey be­tween the Trinidad and To­ba­go Coali­tion of Ser­vices In­dus­tries (TTC­SI) and the Trinidad and To­ba­go Man­u­fac­tur­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTMA).

The pur­pose of the Sur­vey, ti­tled, ‘Eco­nom­ic im­pact as­sess­ment of COVID-19 on ser­vices and man­u­fac­tur­ing sec­tors’ was to as­sess/de­ter­mine:

*  The ef­fects of the pan­dem­ic with re­spect to hours of op­er­a­tions, dis­missals, cuts in wages and de­creas­es in sales. These can be sued to es­ti­mate the over­all eco­nom­ic im­pact on the coun­try and per sec­tor

*  In­no­v­a­tive mit­i­ga­tion/cop­ing strate­gies that are be­ing used by firms. This can be used to make rec­om­men­da­tions to oth­er firms or event to pol­i­cy mak­ers

*  The post-pan­dem­ic busi­ness out­look. This is im­por­tant to gauge the eco­nom­ic re­cov­ery and to de­vel­op pro­grams to meet the needs of spe­cif­ic sec­tors that think they will be hard­est hit

TTC­SI Pres­i­dent, Lara Quen­trall-Thomas said:

“Trinidad and To­ba­go, along with the rest of the world, has been fac­ing this pan­dem­ic head-on. Al­though all our com­mu­ni­ties and busi­ness­es are be­ing im­pact­ed, we have been stay­ing pos­i­tive, re­main­ing pro­duc­tive, and pro­vid­ing sup­port to one an­oth­er where we can. This Sur­vey is ev­i­dence of the TTC­SI’s com­mit­ment to pro­vide strate­gic fo­cus and guid­ance to its mem­ber or­gan­i­sa­tions.”

The Sur­vey, com­pris­ing of twen­ty-six (26) ques­tions, was ex­e­cut­ed in April and re­ceived a to­tal of three hun­dred and nine­ty-four (394) re­spons­es, rep­re­sent­ing three hun­dred and nine­ty-four (394) busi­ness­es in Trinidad and To­ba­go. The Sur­vey cap­tured the re­spon­dents’ busi­ness pro­file, ad­dressed the is­sues of Rev­enue/Op­er­a­tions, en­cour­aged the shar­ing of Mit­i­ga­tion Mea­sures, and high­light­ed what is need­ed for Re­cov­ery.

One key area high­light­ed by the re­spon­dents was the sup­port re­quired in the de­vel­op­ment of In­for­ma­tion and Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Tech­nol­o­gy (ICT) prod­ucts.

The Re­port will be shared with the Cab­i­net-ap­point­ed Na­tion­al Eco­nom­ic Re­cov­ery Com­mit­tee.