The To­ba­go busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty is call­ing for is­sues be­tween the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly and the Cen­tral Gov­ern­ment to be re­solved for the ben­e­fit of To­ba­go and its econ­o­my come 2024.

The cham­ber al­so has high ex­pec­ta­tions for ma­jor projects from the THA that will stim­u­late the is­land’s econ­o­my, fol­low­ing a bleak and stag­nant year in the sec­tor.

Chair­man of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce’s To­ba­go Di­vi­sion, Cur­tis Williams, says be­cause mon­ey is not mov­ing through the econ­o­my, the To­ba­go pop­u­la­tion has been feel­ing the pinch.

In an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia, Williams said, “The fall­out be­tween the Cen­tral Gov­ern­ment and the THA, that is not a ma­jor con­tribut­ing fac­tor to it. But, we know go­ing for­ward in terms of in­vest­ment, plans and projects, the THA and Cen­tral Gov­ern­ment would need to have a con­ver­sa­tion—mean­ing­ful con­ver­sa­tion, not old talk.”

He added, “We need that di­a­logue; we need that re­la­tion­ship to be mend­ed and we need to get some­thing suc­cess­ful­ly hap­pen­ing for the peo­ple of To­ba­go.

“The THA is the main dri­ver for To­ba­go and in 2023, we haven’t seen that many ac­tiv­i­ties com­ing in in terms of projects to turn around that mon­ey,” Williams said.

“I think it’s a cash flow is­sue. We need some stim­u­lants hap­pen­ing on the is­land and if we do not have that big stim­u­lant hap­pen­ing on the is­land, we won’t have that trick­le-down ef­fect of funds mov­ing from the big play­er down to the small play­er.”

He said the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty is look­ing for­ward to a meet­ing with the THA in Jan­u­ary with hopes of hear­ing a “game chang­er” plan to re­vi­talise the is­land’s econ­o­my.