The South Chamber president, Charles Percy, has severely criticised government for not providing incentives earlier to halt the decline in gas reserves.Percy says although he wasn't overly worried about the country's falling gas reserves, it was important not to panic about the situation as the trend can still be reversed. He noted, however, that the situation makes for unnecessary business uncertainty that the country could do without.
Speaking at the South Trinidad Chamber's annual general meeting at the Hyatt yesterday, Percy said declines in gas reserves occurs normally as a result of increased utilization. He said however, that increased production without any significant new finds from local wells over the past few years has accelerated the decline, and government should have taken the steps to encourage exploration a few years ago.
"If we are going to turn things around, we need to take urgent action to stimulate significant new exploration activity. The South Chamber data is in line with the Ministry of Energy's estimate that we need nine major exploration wells per year, if we are going to have reserves replacement above 100 percent," he added.
"We therefore need to set multi-year targets on acreages to be exploited. There also need to be a clear strategy to get this exploration acreage into the hands of companies with the technical and financial resources necessary to carry out successful projects.
"This need for urgent action must be part of an overall strategy for the development of the energy sector over the short, medium and long term planning horizons," he added.
Trade Minister Mariano Browne who also spoke at the meeting, says Government will be doing its part to facilitate business, and the private sector will see a more efficient and responsive government in the near future.
Speaking on opportunities for public/private sector partnership for development, Browne cited Petrotrin as an example of this partnership.
Browne said government has indicated its desire to work with the private sector and the South Chamber is ready to throw in its collaborative hat.
"Petrotrin is a good example of government and private sector partnership. Government has to initiate work with the private sector, and there has been a history of public and private partnership that needs to grow."
He also identified the National Library Building, Abercromby Street, Port-of-Spain, as another example of the partnership.
The issuance of grants was among the methods in which government supported the private sector initiative. He also foresaw more room for collaboration with regard to the delivery of amenities like water, roads and electricity.
He admitted while there were improvement at the port of Port-of-Spain, valuable time was lost due to traffic congestion.
He also spoke about adopting a more policy oriented approach which would improve the relationship with the private sector so it will no longer be confrontational.
Browne also made reference to Public Administration Minister, Kennedy Swarathsingh's vision for government access to the new service GovNett. This allowed access for 40,000 users across 26 ministries to be served with systems hosted at the new facility such as GovNeTT.
Browne also said it was imperative that while T&T aspires for Vision 2020, its citizens did not rate ourselves too harshly."We have been in charge of our independence for the past 47 years.
Among the areas to be addressed included infrastructure, economics, higher education and innovation. He also said government was directing expenditure towards achieving this goal.
Browne identified setbacks such as red tape, fiscal measures and infrastructure as important ingredients for economic success and social development.