The Bank­ing As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (BATT) said yes­ter­day it was pleased with the com­mit­ment giv­en by Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert to con­sult on op­tions to ad­dress the chal­lenges be­ing faced by the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty and the wider pub­lic in pur­chas­ing for­eign cur­ren­cy.

In a news re­lease yes­ter­day, BATT said it would con­tin­ue to work with Gov­ern­ment to im­ple­ment new arrange­ments to im­prove ac­cess to for­eign ex­change for the most af­fect­ed seg­ments of the mar­ket in­clud­ing small and medi­um-sized en­ter­pris­es.

“We com­mend ini­tia­tives to boost repa­tri­a­tion of for­eign ex­change earned over­seas by lo­cal and for­eign busi­ness op­er­at­ing do­mes­ti­cal­ly to in­crease the sup­ply of for­eign ex­change, giv­en the struc­tur­al is­sues that con­tribute to the for­eign ex­change prob­lems we have been fac­ing,” the as­so­ci­a­tion out­lined.

It en­cour­ages on­go­ing di­a­logue among the gov­ern­ment and stake­hold­ers to find long-term so­lu­tions.

“We look for­ward to re­ceiv­ing clar­i­fi­ca­tions about the pro­posed ex­ten­sion of the two for­eign ex­change fa­cil­i­ties at the Ex­im­Bank and an in­crease in the ceil­ing of the US dol­lar for­eign ex­change fa­cil­i­ty pre­sent­ed in the bud­get. We are al­so heart­ened that the Min­is­ter is con­sid­er­ing BATT’s rec­om­men­da­tion on the forex is­sue,” BATT said.

Crime and Se­cu­ri­ty

BATT high­light­ed that crime is a grow­ing con­cern and con­tin­ues to be a ma­jor is­sue that neg­a­tive­ly af­fects the do­ing-busi­ness en­vi­ron­ment and ac­knowl­edges that the com­plex na­ture of the crime prob­lem re­quires a mul­ti-faceted ap­proach to crime-fight­ing.

It said this sug­gests that a marked and sus­tained re­duc­tion in crime lev­els is more like­ly to oc­cur in the medi­um term.

“BATT will con­tin­ue to col­lab­o­rate with the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice and oth­er stake­hold­ers as we seek ef­fec­tive, long-term so­lu­tions to the crime scourge.”

Com­ment­ing on the pro­posed 17 per cent in­crease of the min­i­mum wage to TT$20.50 per hour, BATT urged the gov­ern­ment to pro­vide tech­ni­cal and oth­er types of as­sis­tance for small- and medi­um-sized busi­ness­es to main­tain their prof­it mar­gins even as they im­ple­ment the wage in­crease.

It not­ed that this is cru­cial giv­en the im­por­tant role that small busi­ness­es play in con­tribut­ing to our GDP and cre­at­ing jobs for work­ers, many of whom are in the low­er-in­come group.

“Man­ag­ing op­er­a­tional costs to ac­com­mo­date the min­i­mum wage in­crease will help to pre­vent neg­a­tive ef­fects on small busi­ness­es such as forced re­duc­tion of em­ploy­ee hours, ter­mi­na­tion of staff, or im­po­si­tion of high­er prices for their goods and ser­vices.

“Look­ing ahead, BATT sug­gests close mon­i­tor­ing of the over­all im­pact of the in­crease in the min­i­mum wage on the small busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty to mit­i­gate un­in­tend­ed neg­a­tive con­se­quences,” the as­so­ci­a­tion added.