SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

Some mem­bers of Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s new­ly-es­tab­lished spe­cial com­mit­tee to chart a re­cov­ery road map for T&T post-COVID-19, see their task ahead as a chal­leng­ing and en­ter­ing new ter­ri­to­ry.

The com­mit­tee, head­ed by Row­ley, com­pris­es 20 oth­er mem­bers who have ex­per­tise in var­i­ous skillsets such as fi­nance, bank­ing, labour, busi­ness, trade and en­er­gy.

Among those hand­picked by the PM was Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion Min­is­ter Alyson West, who said the com­mit­tee was yet to meet and de­cide how they would move for­ward.

“We know we have a tough task ahead, but in my view, Trinidad is in a place it has nev­er been be­fore. We need to think broad­ly and try to come up with a so­lu­tion that is all-en­com­pass­ing.”

West said they will have to ex­am­ine how the econ­o­my was op­er­at­ing be­fore and what would now need to be done for sur­vival af­ter this cri­sis.

“We have to make our­selves more self-suf­fi­cient and re­silient to deal with chal­lenges go­ing for­ward. I know we will put our best foot for­ward,” West told the T&t Guardian.

Food re­place­ment, de­pen­den­cy on en­er­gy, di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion, new sources of for­eign in­come gen­er­a­tion, re­duc­ing un­nec­es­sary pur­chas­es and sav­ings on for­eign ex­change are some of the things West said the com­mit­tee would have to ex­plore and ex­am­ine. She did not dis­count that the task ahead will be chal­leng­ing.

“It will be be­cause we have to try and save T&T in the con­text of the whole world deal­ing with chal­lenges, so we have to go for­ward with the as­sump­tion that we can’t re­ly on oth­ers to help. It is go­ing to be a chal­leng­ing task but in­ter­est­ing.”

She al­so be­lieves the PM has cho­sen a high-cal­i­bre team who will de­liv­er.

“It has to be a col­lab­o­ra­tive ef­fort. It can’t be a dic­tate be­ing pushed down to the peo­ple.”

For­mer T&T Port Au­thor­i­ty chair Al­li­son Lewis, one of three women on the com­mit­tee, said it will be a great op­por­tu­ni­ty to serve the coun­try once more.

“I look for­ward to serv­ing the com­mit­tee. Of course, it’s go­ing to be chal­leng­ing but the thing about it is that every­one on the com­mit­tee has faced chal­lenges in the past one way or the oth­er...per­son­al­ly and na­tion­al­ly.”

Lewis said she has no doubt every­one will have their heart in the right place to do what is best for the coun­try.

Na­tion­al Trade Union Cen­tre (Natuc) gen­er­al sec­re­tary Michael An­nisette, who will rep­re­sent the trade union move­ment, said he’d asked the Gov­ern­ment to es­tab­lish a com­mit­tee of stake­hold­ers to deal with the fall­out of the pan­dem­ic since Jan­u­ary but it was ig­nored.

“It was some­thing we were al­ways sup­port­ive of. It is bet­ter late than nev­er. There are times when dif­fer­ences must be put on the back burn­er,” he said, promis­ing Natuc will re­main com­mit­ted to the peo­ple of T&T.

An­nisette said the coun­try will be chart­ing new ter­ri­to­ry when this cri­sis is over and every­one will have to think out­side of the box.

“We need to put our col­lec­tive wis­dom to­geth­er. I know we can come up with sol­id so­lu­tions.”

While ad­mit­ting many peo­ple have been put on the bread­line as a re­sult of the pan­dem­ic, An­nisette said T&T has “fall­en down” in pro­vid­ing ac­cu­rate fig­ures in this re­gard and this has to be ad­dressed.

“We have to put coun­try first and for­get about rep­re­sent­ing con­stituen­cies. I be­lieve this pan­dem­ic is a bless­ing in dis­guise be­cause it will force us to think in new ways. Rather than crit­i­cise, now is the time to work in the best in­ter­est of T&T.”

Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Robert Le Hunte said their work will be crit­i­cal.

“The work ahead will be no easy task. I don’t think we have ever been in this po­si­tion be­fore. When you look at it, we are deal­ing with two pan­demics...the one we are cur­rent­ly fac­ing and then there is the pan­dem­ic of the whole im­pact on the econ­o­my with re­gards to the falling oil prices.”

He said jump-start­ing a stag­nant econ­o­my would re­quire a team ef­fort and care­ful plan­ning, adding a lot of mon­ey was be­ing spent now by the Gov­ern­ment that was not bud­get­ed for.

He said the PM has set ag­gres­sive time­lines for the road map to be de­liv­ered.

“We need all hands on deck. It’s ex­cit­ing times and lots of work to be done.”

For­mer gov­er­nor of the Cen­tral Bank and gov­ern­ment min­is­ter Win­ston Dook­er­an, who will bring his fi­nan­cial ex­per­tise to the com­mit­tee, said the coun­try was fac­ing its dark­est hour and a dif­fi­cult pe­ri­od “and it re­quires a Her­culean ef­fort to chart the path­way that will build con­fi­dence and sat­is­fy our peo­ple over time. So I see it as a huge chal­lenge for the com­mit­tee.”