This col­umn, on page 3 of the Busi­ness Guardian, has long been in favour of the pri­vati­sa­tion of state as­sets, on the lo­cal stock ex­change, in or­der to gen­er­ate long-term wealth for the cit­i­zens of T&T.

Cur­tis Williams, To­ba­go chair­man of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce, yes­ter­day de­scribed the de­ci­sion by the Gov­ern­ment to sell or lease the Mag­dale­na Grand Beach and Golf Re­sort as an ex­cel­lent move.

Caribbean Air­lines Ltd (CAL) is con­tin­u­ing to ex­pand its foot­print in the re­gion with its lat­est routes to the French Caribbean.

In the view of com­men­ta­tors, the most sur­pris­ing thing about the bud­get was the lack of sur­pris­es.

Crime is not just a so­cial ill; it is an eco­nom­ic ad­ver­sary that erodes the very foun­da­tion of the coun­try's pros­per­i­ty, says Ki­ran Ma­haraj, Pres­i­dent of T&T Cham­ber.

The head of the Cli­co Pol­i­cy­hold­ers Group (CPG), Pe­ter Per­me­ll, has is­sued a cau­tion to com­pa­nies that may be in­ter­est­ed in ac­quir­ing the State's 49 per cent share­hold­ing in Cli­co that Ex­ec­u­tive Flex­i­ble Pre­mi­um An­nu­ity (EF­PA) pol­i­cy­hold­ers of the in­sur­ance com­pa­ny are en­ti­tled to claim the 15 per cent resid­ual bal­ance on their poli­cies plus the ac­crued in­ter­est.

The T&T Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce (T&T Cham­ber) says the fis­cal al­lo­ca­tion to­ward com­bat­ing crime has been “high and ris­ing” not­ing that the coun­try’s crime sit­u­a­tion re­mains alarm­ing.

Min­is­ter of Fi­nance, Colm Im­bert, an­nounced yes­ter­day that the Gov­ern­ment would sell the State's 49 per cent share­hold­ing in the in­sur­ance com­pa­ny, Cli­co, in the 2025 fis­cal year, which be­gins to­day.

The Cou­va Point Lisas Cham­ber of Com­merce (CPLCC) said yes­ter­day it is pleased that the Gov­ern­ment has de­cid­ed to give VAT Bonds.

On the eve of this coun­try’s Bud­get pre­sen­ta­tion for fis­cal 2025, some of the ma­jor unions want to see out­stand­ing ne­go­ti­a­tions set­tled in a way that eas­es the fi­nan­cial strain on mid­dle-and low­er-in­come fam­i­lies.

A new de­bate is brew­ing over the use of the funds in T&T’s Her­itage and Sta­bil­i­sa­tion Fund, af­ter Op­po­si­tion Leader, Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar on Fri­day took is­sue with com­ments made by econ­o­mist Dr Ronald Ramkissoon.

Bud­get 2024 is up­on us and every­one wants to know what the econ­o­mists have to say. Is it go­ing to be a belt tight­en­ing or good­ies bud­get? Will we hear de­fin­i­tive de­ci­sions on in­creased wa­ter and elec­tric­i­ty rates? Are oth­er sub­si­dies to be re­duced or re­moved? Gate? CDAP? Se­nior Cit­i­zens Pen­sion?