Prime Minister's Address at Caribbean MBA Conference

I am honoured to have this opportunity to address once again this distinguished forum of MBA alumni.
I wish on behalf of the government and people of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago to welcome every one of you to this assembly.

I extend especial greetings to those of you who are first time visitors to our beautiful archipelagic Republic.
For all the right reasons, including what is taking place in the global energy environment, and in our non oil sector, this is a very timely conference. I wish to begin by congratulating the students of the Harvard Business School and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and indeed all those who are responsible for organizing this important and progressive initiative.

Vision 2020
As all of you are probably aware, Trinidad and Tobago has embraced a development plan and agenda known as Vision 2020, through which we aim to transform our country into a developed nation by the end of the second decade of this century: essentially, within the next twelve years.
Vision 2020 envisages a level of development which will enable us to provide for our citizens a quality of life comparable to what would be available, at that time, to those living in developed countries.
We expect to provide by then a comparable level of service in areas such as health, education, housing, public amenities, transportation, access to water and personal security.
Our vision envisages a Trinidad and Tobago that will be united, resilient, productive, innovative and prosperous. Fundamentally, the achievement of these goals, my dear friends, ladies and gentlemen, necessitates greater opportunities for wealth creation and higher levels of income in our economy. It also necessitates the optimum utilization of our resources, and the involvement of all our citizens and institutions in the productive process.

Diversification: the Trinidad and Tobago Context
Vision 2020 is premised on the achievement of clear goals and the setting and meeting of specific performance criteria and developmental targets. Of necessity, its achievement is therefore premised also on the development of a diversified economy, without which our realization of the vision would in fact be altogether impossible.
No aspect of the achievement of our overall objective of becoming a developed country constitutes a simple process. And, hardly is this anywhere more evident than in respect of meeting the diversification challenge.
Diversification itself is a multi-faceted engagement which also requires clear goals and appropriate strategies for the management and realization of change. And we would do well to note, from the onset, some of the complexities and seeming paradoxes.
Notwithstanding, for example, our commitment to reducing our current level of dependence on the energy sector, a considerable part of our diversification effort is still to be financed by this sector, especially over the short and medium terms.
This in itself necessitates ongoing development of our energy sector, and that is most certainly a matter of diversification of the sector.
There must be, after all, the development and strengthening of new and existing energy sub-sectors. For, in the first instance, to relax or proceed more slowly with the development of the sector would be to stall or forestall the pace of economic growth.
Secondly, and ideally, some of these new sub-sectors are emerging and indeed ought to emerge on the basis of new linkages with the non energy sector.
I raise these issues merely to indicate that development of our energy sector is in no way inconsistent with the development of our non energy sector.
Secondly, the fact that our energy sector continues to grow does not mean that little or nothing is happening in the manufacturing sector.
Quite to the contrary, much is happening in our manufacturing sector, which is currently enjoying its highest growth rate ever.
In point of fact, both the energy and non-energy sectors have been experiencing growth, even if the former remains by far the larger contributor to our economy.
Between 2002 to 2006 our non-energy sector surpassed expectations, increasing at an average annual rate of 6 percent.
Another point needs to be made. There is a tendency on the part of some to speak narrowly about diversification in terms of economic diversification per se, as though this is all that the process involves.
The experience within the global community, however, is that economic diversification is always a socio-economic process and much more. As such, in order to proceed successfully with the diversification process, an adequate and appropriate level of social infrastructure has to be concurrently put into place, and a wide array of social intervention strategies have to be employed. In countries where economic diversification was achieved this is essentially the approach which was adopted.
Finally, achieving the level of economic diversification we are pursuing and must pursue here in Trinidad and Tobago is based on increasing our capacity to promote export-led growth in the non-energy sector. There are challenges which must be countenanced in respect of globalization and the increasing openness of our economy, and for which we must be continually and increasingly prepared.
The government’s commitment
The government of Trinidad and Tobago remains committed to the diversification of the economy. There are essentially six pillars on which we have based our initiatives:

• The development of an innovative people
• Enabling competitive businesses
• Investing in sound business infrastructure
• The use of cutting edge technology
• The simultaneous promotion of regional integration, development and trade, and wider international market access
• The development of non-traditional products and services, rooted as far as is possible in the indigenous culture and unique capabilities of the people of our region.
In short, ladies and gentlemen, we are seeking to build our non-energy sector on a viable superstructure of internationally marketable and competitive specialization and especiality.

We have long been cognizant of diversification as the fundamental national safeguard against shocks in the international economy. Experience has been the greatest teacher.
I recall when, in the mid-1980s, towards the end of the second oil shock, in the face of falling oil prices and dwindling government revenues, the then Prime Minister, the late George Michael Chambers, took the initiative to distribute a significant part of what limited financial resources we had left to our local manufacturers, to assist them in the development of their enterprises and the local non–energy sector.
This was done my dear friends in the face of a significant cutback in the social sector but the government of the day and the Prime Minister of the day had the perspicacity to see beyond the immediate environment to take that step which incidentally is a step that is serving us in good stead today.
That initiative proved to be a most decisive intervention in the development of our non energy sector. For, in consequence, Trinidad and Tobago moved from being a virtual neonate in respect of non-oil manufactures to becoming today the largest non-energy manufacturing economy in the Caribbean.
Not only has there been significant growth of the local sector, but, more than this, our larger manufacturers have now outgrown the markets in the region.
They are now pursuing markets in the circum-Caribbean and regions further afield, in the process making way for the development of our small scale manufacturers who now have the opportunity to fill the void left by our large scale manufacturers in the regional market.
It is not merely this. Today, too, Trinidad and Tobago stands on the verge of a second industrial revolution. The first was, of course, in our energy sector. The second is about to take place in the development of non-oil manufactures.
This development is the result of the redoubling of our efforts over the last six years, through a number of initiatives aimed at:

• the development of an enabling local environment for the creation and sustainability of local businesses;
• the provision of support to local entrepreneurs in the penetration of external markets; and the
• the embrace of the challenge of globalization and trade openness through the development of local cost effectiveness and competitiveness
The government of Trinidad and Tobago has no fear of globalization whatever the pitfalls may be and no fear of trade openness – none whatsoever.
The list of initiatives is tremendously wide- ranging and comprehensive:
• In August 2002 the government established the National Entrepreneurship Development Company Limited, NEDCO, to spawn the development of micro and small enterprises and ensure their survival and sustainability. We remain even more cognizant now of the tremendous capacity of the small micro-enterprise sector to create employment; generate wealth and satisfy niche markets normally overlooked by the government and larger business entities. We are aware of its potential to create entirely new products and services possessed of ultimate large-scale development capability and export potential. Equally important, we are aware also of the potential of small business to awaken and stimulate local and cultural genius through creativity and innovation in the development and delivery of goods and services. The critical forestalling factor in the development of such businesses, however, was the inability of would-be entrepreneurs to access capital. We have since sought to overcome this hurdle through the financing facilities offered by NEDCO and the Small Business Development Association.
• Meanwhile, our larger business entities are similarly facilitated through other bridging finances operations and institutions such as the Exim Bank, and the establishment of trade facilitation mechanisms and diplomatic missions. Various institutions have also been set up to facilitate our trade missions and trade exhibitions. We have being pursuing unilateral and multilateral trading agreements with nations near and far.
• Various measures have been implemented to ease restrictions on the importation of raw materials and the exportation of manufactured goods.
• We have introduced initiatives to facilitate the proliferation of e-commerce and e-business.
• We are pursuing the reform of the public service to make it more responsive to the needs of the population and the private sector.
• We have taken on the challenge of realising the legislative reforms necessary for increased trade and investment, the development of our financial and capital markets.
• We have been promoting our transformation into a multilingual society.
All of this is consistent with our determination to make Trinidad and Tobago the commercial and financial hub of the broad Caribbean. Our intention is to become a pan-Caribbean Financial Centre. There are also the various measures we have initiated which are opening transportation networks throughout the country and our transport links to the rest of the world.
The Seven Sectors
We have been for some time now in a far better position than we have ever been in respect of our diversification programme.
In recent times developments have taken a quantum leap. The impetus to this adjustment is the establishment by the government of seven industrial sectors which we have been targeted as priorities for industrial expansion and development. In all these sectors Trinidad and Tobago has already developed a substantial resource base and tremendous potential for developing even further competitive advantage in the international market place. Our local stakeholders are referring to them as “The Seven Sectors.” They are as follows:

1. The Food and Beverage Industry. We are already an industrial giant in the area. It is time to take our products to the far corners of the globe
2. The Maritime (Merchant Marine) Industry. This industry began out of the developments in our energy sector and is proving to be a major spawning ground for various marine businesses and investments. On this score we might wish to note that Trinidad and Tobago recently constructed locally a number of fully loaded platforms for use in the energy sector. All of this is pointing to how forward looking this sector can be.
3. The Yachting Industry. Since the 1990s this sector has demonstrated tremendous potential to attract a worldwide clientele.
4. The Film Industry. Our poets, playwrights and actors have been fascinating the world since the 1960s. They have acted everywhere and have been seen and everywhere. It is time to put them on Camera. It is time for action.
5. The Entertainment Industry. My dear friends, ladies and gentlemen, the talent, creativity and genius of our nation – our musicians, performing artistes, mas costume designers and masqueraders defy description and do not require mere hollow praise. They certainly do not now require further platitudinous support from anyone, least of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It is time to sell these products to the world. It is time to let the world know. It is time to take these products to the next level.
6. Fish and Fish Processing. A two hundred year old with phenomenal potential.
7. The Printing and Packaging Industry. Again, in this sector we are the leaders in the Caribbean. It is an area of unlimited growth potential.

New Industrial Parks
Ladies and gentlemen, yet another critical boost to the development of our non-energy sector emanates from the government’s decision to establish several new industrial parks which provide the geographical space and infrastructural assemblage for the development, mushrooming and sustainability of light manufacturing and industrial clusters.

I will say more about this later. Permit me to point out firstly that in pursuing this, as indeed other such initiatives, Trinidad and Tobago is going much further than we have ever gone before in the pursuit of the development of an innovative and entrepreneurial culture among the people of our nation. This brings me to what is to my mind the most important aspect of our thrust to diversify the economy of our country. I refer here to the development of our human capital, the education and training of our people.

Human resource development
Ladies and gentlemen, against the background of all our initiatives for development is our determination to develop our human resource potential here in Trinidad and Tobago.

During the past six years, the government introduced some of most revolutionary and far-reaching reforms and initiatives for the development of our education system.

Within a three year time frame, for example, Trinidad and Tobago moved from having in operation one accredited University to having three such institutions, namely the University of the West Indies (St. Augustine Campus), the University of Trinidad and Tobago and the University of the Southern Caribbean. Several private sector institutions of higher education have also emerged.

Additionally, several state-sponsored colleges have now been transformed into degree-conferring institutions, and institutions which confer associate degrees.

More state-sponsored institutions of higher education are to come.

Meanwhile, we have also made tertiary education available to all our citizens who meet the matriculation requirements. Essentially, access to tertiary education is free of charge. The government meets the cost.

Our intention is the development of a knowledge–based, technology driven society, and this is a goal from which we shall not depart.

Perhaps I should tell you when we came into Government in 2001 late 2001 the percentage of the graduates of our secondary school system who were exposed to post secondary and tertiary education amounted to about 11%. Today the figure is 35% and climbing, it is moving very fast. We target 60% by the Year 2015.

The areas of specialisation of our various institutions of higher education indicate the effort of the government to satisfy our human resource needs in every area that would make us technology advanced and industry competitive.

In this regard, we have actually forged that link between our technological requirements and the establishment of educational institutions that will enable our satisfaction of those educational requirements.

Virtually every field of industry in Trinidad and Tobago has been opened up for research and development. Beyond any doubt, we are bridging the gap between our education requirements and what is required for the development of industries and for economic diversification.

Reflective of this is the part already being played by E-teck, the Evolving Technologies and Enterprise Development Company. Its focus is on researching and spawning businesses and institutions that would develop new industries in the energy and non-energy sectors.

The focus is on innovation and entrepreneurship. Earlier, mention was made of the government’s initiative to establish a number of new industrial parks across the length and breadth of Trinidad and Tobago. For the record, out of the E-teck’s initiatives we have already established the flagship for our modern, cutting edge technological estate, the Tamana In-Tech Park.
The Park will cater for the development of non-energy, light manufacturing industries. It will also cater for knowledge-based and information computer technology development. It will serve as one of the core campuses of the University of Trinidad and Tobago.

Bridging the gap between research and industry, and between human and industrial development. That is what it is all about.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are leaving no stone unturned. We are, for example, moving with full speed into the development of our Information Technology capabilities.

Those who have been following local developments will have noted, for example, the opening up and expansion of telecommunications industry and infrastructure. We are developing our capability to forge alliance, and to offer and procure outsourcing services.

We are leaving no industry unattended. No industry shall be over looked this era of revitalisation and transformation.

You will find, for example that we have significantly strengthened our initiatives in terms of tourism and the hospitality industry.

Again, recent developments regarding food prices, locally, regional and internationally, have fast forwarded government’s initiatives in the agricultural sector.

This year, agriculture received its largest budgetary allocation in the history of the country. The government is implementing several initiatives to increase the acreage of land under cultivations, the number of our citizens involved in agriculture and the support for those involved in food production. New incentives are being put into place to promote agri-business. Government has intensified its efforts regarding the development of the countries agri-infrastructure. More resources have been diverted to research and development. The Caroni Divestment Initiative is well in train, and several recipients of Caroni lands have begun to cultivate their agricultural plots. Several large (indeed seven hundred acre) farms, each focusing on different crops and livestock, are being established across this country. Including a 200 acre farm in Chaguaramas with the assistance from the government of Cuba.

Reaching the four corners of the Globe
Those who have been following the development of our nation would recognize the tremendous strides we have realised in our relations with the global community in recent years. We have progressed from being a nation-state that other nations merely heard about to one which other nations now know, because we have been developing much closer relations with them. In recent years, we have strengthened and deepened our relations with our fellow CARICOM member-states; our Latin American counterparts; North and Middle America; Africa; Asia; the Far East; the South Pacific. In fact we have embarked on a very unusual and innovative initiative to give technical assistance at no cost in the energy sector to seven West African States, and indeed after addressing the African Union Meeting in Addis Ababa in January of last year a number of African Presidents have approached me to be a part of that initiative. And what started at seven countries has now been broadened to many more. It includes Tanzania, a country that was not originally included but a country in respect of which I have had the honour to visit as a guest.

Ours, in this regard, is not an arbitrary approach. Every initiative is prompted by our desire for trade and investment; the search for new knowledge, technologies and best practices; the proper profiling of our nation at the international level, and the need to assess our competitiveness, set goals and developing strategies for the promotion of “brand T and T.”

The way forward.
We are well on our way, notwithstanding various challenges. Along the road, we have been accused of overheating the economy, creating an inflationary situation. We have been accused of unnecessarily resorting to foreign labour. As might be expected, some of the criticisms reflect a misunderstanding of some of the fundamentals of diversification and development.

We have in fact been achieving success at myriad levels. Even so, there are those who suggest that we should slow down the process of development and transformation. To do so however, would be to retard the progress of Trinidad and Tobago. There is an old truism well articulated by the poet and playwright, William Shakespeare:

There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.

I have interpreted this to mean that there is a force or dynamism which ebbs and flows in time, and that men and nations must "take advantage of the flow,” as waiting around only allows that force to pass its crest and begin to ebb. Indeed if the opportunity is missed, we are likely to find ourselves stranded in miserable shallows and to lose our ventures.

The Next Level
Much depends therefore on how we manage our strategy for diversification and change. But there are always certain fundamentals that we can agree upon. Michael Porter, whom some of you know, William Edwards Demming, easily the most influential North Atlantic scholar in the making of the Japanese success story, Peter Drucker and others would certainly agree on one fact: whatever has to be done in the name of development, has to be done by people.

It follows naturally that the people must therefore know what is to be done, and how best to do what is to be done. Achieving this requires various levels of approaches and types of institutional transformation and adjustment. But most important among them are the levels and types of education and training.
Our society can only progress to the next level if all our citizens can do what they have to do very well. That is the technological and knowledge- based culture that must be engendered.

That however, is what is necessary within Trinidad and Tobago, but that is only part of the equation.

We all know that there are also various levels of exogenous dynamics. What we are seeking to achieve would not be realized optimally without the opportunity to play an important part in defining the economic environment in which we operate and seek to service.

Europe is what it is today because European countries have always been playing their part in the development of their region, the hemisphere and the international environment.

The EU is what it is today because of the part European nations have played. In fact, they have long, indeed for centuries, exerted the greatest influence on the global hegemony and the comity of nations, including our Caribbean nation-states.

By contrast, over the concomitant period, the Caribbean has not spoken through its own voice. We are only now beginning to clear a path for ourselves. The countries of our region can only become what we aspire towards, in so far as we are adequately able to exert our influence on our becoming. This is a reality, the profundity of which has never escaped us here in Trinidad and Tobago and we are therefore more than conscious of the fact that, in the final analysis, the futures of Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean are inextricably connected. We have a measure of responsibility for ourselves. No longer are we in the Caribbean a mere geographical and historical expression of our colonial experience. Since the independence period, our nations have after all taken up the mantle of exploring and exploiting for our own benefit, the more substantive aspect of our reality- which is that we are essentially one people and one community whose common challenges provide us with a responsibility to proceed on the basis of far more than merely our shared aspirations. Ours is a common destiny to mould.

Our historical experience in the Caribbean, emerging global trends and our options for the future, suggest that increasing levels of unity constitute the pragmatic way forward. This is imperative. And we know this in Trinidad and Tobago for a fact. Outside of the United States, the Caribbean constitutes our largest market. The rise of the Caribbean constitutes the rise of Trinidad and Tobago: the rise of Trinidad and Tobago is the rise of the Caribbean.

It is also on that basis that Trinidad and Tobago continues and will continue to urge the development of pan-Caribbean structures to cope with our challenges in the region, including those that must ultimately provide the regional capital, knowledge-base and technical expertise for the diversification of our domestic economies, and, as paradoxical as it may seem, diversification within our region.

We remain committed to the deepening and strengthening of the regional integration process. The establishment of the Caribbean Single Market, and, even more importantly, the Caribbean Single Economy, will provide many opportunities for mergers and capital accumulation across the region and should act as an impetus to greater regional business development, including regional financing. These are developments whose time has certainly come. Trinidad and Tobago will continue to do it part. We are ready and able.

We have been for some time now. And we are therefore not afraid of globalization and market openness. We were not afraid of the Free Trade Area of the America. In fact, so confident were we that we sought to become its headquarters. Nor are we unduly concerned about the eventual passing of this oil shock.

This is because Trinidad and Tobago has embarked on a new phase of industrial development that is likely to provide our economy with not only greater resilience but also a more rapid pace of growth.

And you would notice that nowhere do our initiatives constitute the wholesale imbibitions of any external paradigm.
It is in fact significantly rooted in local and regional initiative and culture. We are truly embarked on a new level of socio-economic diversification and transformation and a new and more liberating awareness of our potential and the logistics, which will enable us to monetise our proven capabilities in the international environment. Let us always remember that the people of our Caribbean have come from all parts of the world. There is a ready market for what we have to offer, in that providing we do it right we can, in fact go boldly where we have not gone before. As I make this point let me conclude by making yet another connection.

As we seek to make our mark on the world in this way it must dawn on us that the Caribbean is today not merely a region of diverse diasporic origins, but has over the past two centuries spawned a diaspora of its own across the globe.

I am certain, for example, that among you of this distinguished audience are to be found students whose roots are essentially Caribbean.

You must know that the people of our region continue to look forward to working with all our brilliant sons and daughters, where ever they reside.

All the same some of you may not be citizens of the Caribbean. However, on touching tierra firma here in Trinidad and Tobago, you would have undoubtedly been overwhelmed by the beauty and splendor of our country and region.

I open the doors of the nation to you, and through us, the portals of the Caribbean. I extend to you this morning a warm invitation to work with us here in Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean, so that, together, we can further strengthen our contribution to human civilization and make this world a better place in which to live.

I expect that as usual you shall have a very stimulating and thought-provoking conference.

Thank you very much for your attention, ladies and gentlemen. May God bless you. And, for those of your who are visitors to our shores, do enjoy the rest of your stay in the beloved Republic of Trinidad and Tobago

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