The Trinidad and To­ba­go Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce has con­grat­u­lat­ed Prime Min­is­ter-elect Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) on their vic­to­ry at the polls on Mon­day night.

The Cham­ber al­so com­mend­ed the To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty (TPP) and its leader, Far­ley Chavez Au­gus­tine, for their suc­cess in To­ba­go.

How­ev­er, the Cham­ber recog­nised that while the re­spec­tive par­ties have emerged vic­to­ri­ous, there is much work to be done. "The work be­gins now. There is no hon­ey­moon pe­ri­od. The gov­ern­ment must pri­ori­tise the press­ing chal­lenges fac­ing us as a na­tion, as we nav­i­gate many glob­al ten­sions," a state­ment on Tues­day morn­ing said.

In its state­ment, the Cham­ber ex­pressed its readi­ness to part­ner with the gov­ern­ment in ad­dress­ing the na­tion’s con­cerns.

It urged the in­com­ing ad­min­is­tra­tion to "act swift­ly and de­ci­sive­ly in ad­dress­ing all na­tion­al chal­lenges," in­clud­ing is­sues that im­pact the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty such as crime, ac­cess to for­eign ex­change, eco­nom­ic di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion, pub­lic sec­tor re­form, and the full im­ple­men­ta­tion of the TTRA.

The Cham­ber al­so ap­plaud­ed the cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go "for ex­er­cis­ing their de­mo­c­ra­t­ic right to vote and par­tic­i­pate in the elec­toral process."