It cannot be sufficiently reported and commented upon that unless we, at this critical point in the political economy and society, recognise that if we are to continue spending freely the foreign exchange from the Central Bank and commercial banks, then we have to construct an economy that earns the hard currency in large quantities outside of the energy sector.
The responsibility for the inability to solve this post-independence problem lies first with the incapacity of succeeding governments to build the framework to make it very difficult for those involved in unnecessary importation to survive and prosper. Secondly, it’s the failure of the private sector to grasp and conquer the challenge of creating a vibrant and varied export sector.
The latter is absolutely necessary as a means of breaking, or at least mitigating, the almost total dependence on the energy sector to earn the foreign currency needed to purchase essential imports. Moreover, the recognition must come to us in a dramatic manner that outside a couple of state sector energy-earning corporations, it’s the foreign-owned multinational corporations which own and control the earning of foreign exchange.
The reality of all this is reflected well in a report in the Sunday Business Guardian on the Central Bank’s 2023 Annual Report, appropriately headlined, “Appetite for Imports Strong, But Inflows Have Declined.” It’s a recurrent happening every time the prices on the international market for energy products fall. This feature of our dependence has continued over the last few decades and more, as our mature fields are producing smaller quantities of natural resources.
It is often contended by members of the business community that government incentives to encourage productive investment in exports have been insufficient and not pointed and compelling enough for the local investment community to see possibilities for the production of goods and services for export.
It is also possible that the regional environment and markets are not sufficiently propitious and like ours, remain too dependent on traditional forms of import consumption. Therefore, the dependence on one sector to earn the foreign exchange for all else to live by remains chronic.
The need is for the country to be informed by research findings of the Central Bank, meaning we should all understand from the data and the statements of the Bank in its various reports, that stagnation leads inevitably to decline.
While we must utilise the resources under the surface of land and sea and the occasional boom in energy prices on the international market, the economy cannot remain totally dependent on the rise and fall of international energy prices over which we have absolutely no control.
The solutions to the problems are not essentially technical, they are conceptual; they are dependent on the emergence of a spirit of entrepreneurship and the disposition to see possibilities outside of what is on the surface.
A breed of entrepreneurs has to be cultivated. While there is something of a surge in groups of young people attempting to experiment, it is not sufficiently strong and widespread to become the dominant feature of the T&T business culture.
Our school curricula, our universities and technical colleges must, therefore, generate innovative minds with the vitality and enthusiasm to foster that spirit of entrepreneurship.