An­drea Perez-Sobers

Se­nior Re­porter

an­drea.perez-sobers

@guardian.co.tt

The T&T Man­u­fac­tur­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion and busi­ness groups are ea­ger to work with new­ly ap­point­ed Min­is­ter of Trade, In­vest­ment, and Tourism Satyaka­ma “Ka­ma” Ma­haraj.

Ma­haraj was sworn in as the new min­is­ter at a cer­e­mo­ny at Pres­i­dent House, St Ann’s, yes­ter­day.

Col­in Neil Go­sine was al­so sworn in as the Par­lia­men­tary sec­re­tary in the min­istry on Sat­ur­day.

Speak­ing hours af­ter the cer­e­mo­ny, TTMA pres­i­dent Dale Par­son told Guardian me­dia that Ma­haraj was a very good choice and praised the Prime Min­is­ter for choos­ing some­one from the man­u­fac­tur­ing sec­tor.

“Min­is­ter Ma­haraj, as you know, his busi­ness is Sacha Cos­met­ics, and he has been a mem­ber of TTMA for more than 30 years and he un­der­stands the plights of the man­u­fac­tur­ers very well and what we face to get our prod­ucts ex­port­ed to earn US dol­lars for the coun­try,” Par­son stat­ed.

He point­ed out that the min­is­ter is sell­ing his prod­ucts all over the world, to the Unit­ed States, Wal­mart, Ama­zon, Puer­to Ri­co, and even to Cu­ba, and has had a lot of suc­cess. He not­ed that be­cause Ma­haraj has been through the ropes, he un­der­stands trade very well.

Par­son is hope­ful that the new min­is­ter can help the TTMA ac­quire a par­cel of state land to con­struct its own con­ven­tion cen­tre, so the as­so­ci­a­tion can re­al­ly plant the seed to make T&T the man­u­fac­tur­ing hub of the Caribbean.

Al­so com­ment­ing on Ma­haraj’s ap­point­ment, the Greater Tu­na­puna Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce said he has demon­strat­ed ex­cep­tion­al en­tre­pre­neur­ial spir­it and a deep com­mit­ment to en­hanc­ing the na­tion’s eco­nom­ic land­scape.

The cham­ber said it is con­fi­dent that Ma­haraj’s lead­er­ship will bring a fresh per­spec­tive to the min­istry, fos­ter­ing an en­vi­ron­ment con­ducive to busi­ness growth and in­ter­na­tion­al col­lab­o­ra­tion.

“His track record of in­no­va­tion and ded­i­ca­tion to ex­cel­lence aligns with the cham­ber’s mis­sion to ad­vo­cate for poli­cies that pro­mote eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment and sup­port the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty. We look for­ward to col­lab­o­rat­ing with the min­istry to ad­dress key chal­lenges and seize op­por­tu­ni­ties that will con­tribute to the pros­per­i­ty of T&T,” the busi­ness group said.

In this piv­otal role, the cham­ber not­ed that Ma­haraj has the op­por­tu­ni­ty to shape the fu­ture of the na­tion’s eco­nom­ic sec­tors.

Mean­while, pres­i­dent of the San Fer­nan­do Greater Cham­ber (SFGCC), Ki­ran Singh, echoed the sen­ti­ment that Ma­haraj is well poised for this po­si­tion, ex­plain­ing that his wealth of ex­pe­ri­ence in busi­ness will be an as­set to fur­ther de­vel­op trade and tourism links.

Singh not­ed that Ma­haraj’s vi­sion to cre­ate a cos­met­ic line suit­ed for per­sons of colour had won many lo­cal and in­ter­na­tion­al ac­co­lades.

“Ma­haraj has the po­ten­tial to in­vig­o­rate the econ­o­my as a busi­ness­man in a way that has not been done be­fore. He un­der­stands the chal­lenges the SME Sec­tor faces, hav­ing come from the busi­ness en­vi­ron­ment.”

Al­so, the cham­ber head out­lined that the chal­lenges of port man­age­ment, longer work­ing hours, week­ends, and pub­lic hol­i­days would need to be ad­dressed im­me­di­ate­ly.

He al­so talked about the yacht­ing and cruise ship in­dus­try, which he said has to be looked at.

“The func­tion­al­i­ty of busi­ness from reg­is­tra­tion to op­er­a­tion has to be im­proved,” Singh added.