The Ch­agua­nas Cham­ber of Com­merce is call­ing on all po­lit­i­cal lead­ers to ad­dress the ur­gent eco­nom­ic and busi­ness chal­lenges fac­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go, fol­low­ing the an­nounce­ment of the gen­er­al elec­tion on April 28, 2025.

In a news re­lease yes­ter­day, the cham­ber said the elec­tion must be about more than just cam­paign promis­es—it must be about re­al so­lu­tions to the press­ing is­sues af­fect­ing busi­ness­es, in­vestors, and the econ­o­my at large.

"The in­com­ing gov­ern­ment will need to act swift­ly and de­ci­sive­ly, par­tic­u­lar­ly if the much-an­tic­i­pat­ed gas deal does not ma­te­ri­alise as ex­pect­ed," said the busi­ness or­gan­i­sa­tion.

It not­ed the en­er­gy sec­tor re­mains the back­bone of our econ­o­my, and its sta­bil­i­ty is cru­cial for na­tion­al rev­enue, for­eign ex­change earn­ings, and in­vestor con­fi­dence. "How­ev­er, with glob­al en­er­gy mar­kets shift­ing and con­cerns about the long-term vi­a­bil­i­ty of our gas sup­ply, po­lit­i­cal lead­ers must out­line their con­tin­gency plans. "If the gas deal does not de­liv­er the ex­pect­ed re­turns, what is the al­ter­na­tive? Will we see re­newed ef­forts to­ward eco­nom­ic di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion? Will there be a more ag­gres­sive push to de­vel­op non-en­er­gy sec­tors such as man­u­fac­tur­ing, agri­cul­ture, and tech­nol­o­gy? The busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty de­serves clar­i­ty on the way for­ward," said the cham­ber.

In ad­di­tion to en­er­gy con­cerns, the Ch­agua­nas Cham­ber said busi­ness­es are still grap­pling with chron­ic for­eign ex­change short­ages, ris­ing crime, in­ef­fi­cient trade and cus­toms process­es, and wors­en­ing traf­fic con­ges­tion. Ac­cess to forex con­tin­ues to sti­fle growth, mak­ing it dif­fi­cult for busi­ness­es to im­port es­sen­tial goods and sus­tain op­er­a­tions. A struc­tured, trans­par­ent sys­tem for forex al­lo­ca­tion must be a top pri­or­i­ty for the next ad­min­is­tra­tion.