::: Official PNM Government Affairs Ched :::

[desifemlove]

We cannot compete with any of market for technology. India, China and Korea virtually have a monopoly of the manufacture of motherboards because their labor is mindbogglingly cheap. China, India and Latin America, specifically Brazil, has control of the smartphone market among developing countries. Most of the phones in places like paraguay, bolivia, ecuador, guatemala, honduras, el salvador and nicaragua are from BLU. China has a monopoly on phones, not just smart phones in Africa and south-east asia(Cambodia, Laos). Those markets are simply not open to us. Software development and Finance could be an avenue though. Singapore was one of the world's least developed countries before Lee Kuan Yew, it was a fishing port. Yet in 2015, they are now a leader in IT and technical education and we can take a page out of their book

ICT is a big/diverse industry, ent? you saying from making ethernet, IP phones, to coding (UK/USA/Canada all have shitload of coding houses still...poor like China??) to systems design, there's nothing TT can get in?

China only has "monopoly" in manufacturing. Huawei is new to the game in branding, but waay behind Samsung and HTC and all the other Android makers. Same with PCs, most PCs aren't sold by Chinese firms. if some peopel in the USA could found BLU, mek some contract with Foxconn or whoeverm, TT can do same. It's this defeatist, shallow, and non-advanced thinking that leads the country to how it is now, PNM and UNC both to blame for dat.

[desifemlove]

Actually ZR, $14 is not as bad as you think. E.G in 1984, the price of oil dropped to $9. That equates to 22 dollars in our time. The reason is that the two wars we have fought in this millennium have fundamentally changed the way we price oil. And off course the arab spring and the wars that subsequently followed sent the price sky high

1990s was different to today. No China importing oil, no shale gas.

That said, Dr. R. should be encouraging manufacturing, offering grants to make software/ICT products. No reason why we cannot export motherboards, or smartphones, or get a Foxconn-esque deal here. ICT won't decline in importance, and would gain far more FOREX.

his plan is 6/10 for me. some good points, more could have been/be done.

Software products?

Export motherboards?

Have you seen how cheaply them Indians does work for on Freelance websites? you feel we could compete with that? actually I work cheaper than Indians for software development and I am close to start offering mobile app development service in 2016. And the pay is really low overall, I survive because I live rent free.

I have a video game in the works in Unreal Engine 4 that I expect to launch in 2017 on Steam all done in C++ coding. I do it all myself if Vladimir Romanyuk could make "space engine" by himself then I too can make a decent game myself. And even then I am expecting to make no more than $500 US a month. Especially after the 30% steam cut.

Dude we cannot compete with Asia in exporting ICT products be it software or hardware. Hardware companies are struggling all around the world just to stay in business. You know how hard it is to make motherboards? and when you do how do you compete against well known companies like ASUS and Samsung? This country only has 1.3 million or so people. Besides that our culture is all about fete wine and jam all year round.

Nobody here wants to build motherboards or software, these would be people passionate and dedicate their lives to this field. Even Engineering and computer science majors in UWI does fete and drink rum. Soon as they graduate they looking for ah government wuk first thing or ah teaching wuk so they can get paid for the summer while they relax. Do you know what it takes to succeed in this field of exporting ICT products that the world actually wants and willing to pay reasonable money for? I go give you a hint if there is any such person here capable of this, he or she is not staying in any 3rd world country, they will have much better opportunities than anything Rowley could offer them.

ask ASUS or AMD or whoever to come here...and why not? i have close family who in rich countries were senior managers in computer assembly firms. to say trini too poor or we too richer than china is bull. i'd also say those uwi fellas/misses too dotish...

[DVSTT]

Colm is saying that they want to increase housing construction and get the private sector more involved, in order to provide more jobs for persons. My question is, is it a wise endeavor to encourage persons to take loans when their jobs aren't secured? Also, is it wise to encourage housing construction, given the exorbitant cost of building that we already endure?

[Trinispougla]

There have been a few innovations in the past. Barbados(out of need) started to build solar power systems in the 1970s, over thirty years now, yet Barbados despite exporting to other islands and Latin America is still heavily dependent on Tourism. They have received virtually nothing out of an investment the government helped to finance. Prof Ken Julien was one of the first people to seriously investigate the uses of natural gas. As a result,for decades TT was the leader in the western hemisphere in energy and hydrocarbons, reaching a high when we were on the headtable at OPEC with countries like Iran, SA, Kuwait etc. Do you think if Singapore had any rrsoue natural resources, they would have been as innovative as they are now. Breds, Jamaica sends at least twenty students every year to Russia to study engineering and yet they are still in the doldrums. More than likely somebody has found an innovation in the how many donkey years the programme is going on, yet for over thirty-five years, they have been in the jaws of the IMF with their bossum buddies Guyana, who ironically had the same thing going on during the Soviet years. Manufacturing I'm fields we have a REALISTIC chance of success in is the only safe bet. Almost every innovation in chemichal, and mechanical engineering takes place in states much larger than us. This unfortunatley is the burden of small states.

[Trinispougla]

Actually ZR, $14 is not as bad as you think. E.G in 1984, the price of oil dropped to $9. That equates to 22 dollars in our time. The reason is that the two wars we have fought in this millennium have fundamentally changed the way we price oil. And off course the arab spring and the wars that subsequently followed sent the price sky high

1990s was different to today. No China importing oil, no shale gas.

That said, Dr. R. should be encouraging manufacturing, offering grants to make software/ICT products. No reason why we cannot export motherboards, or smartphones, or get a Foxconn-esque deal here. ICT won't decline in importance, and would gain far more FOREX.

his plan is 6/10 for me. some good points, more could have been/be done.

Software products?

Export motherboards?

Have you seen how cheaply them Indians does work for on Freelance websites? you feel we could compete with that? actually I work cheaper than Indians for software development and I am close to start offering mobile app development service in 2016. And the pay is really low overall, I survive because I live rent free.

I have a video game in the works in Unreal Engine 4 that I expect to launch in 2017 on Steam all done in C++ coding. I do it all myself if Vladimir Romanyuk could make "space engine" by himself then I too can make a decent game myself. And even then I am expecting to make no more than $500 US a month. Especially after the 30% steam cut.

Dude we cannot compete with Asia in exporting ICT products be it software or hardware. Hardware companies are struggling all around the world just to stay in business. You know how hard it is to make motherboards? and when you do how do you compete against well known companies like ASUS and Samsung? This country only has 1.3 million or so people. Besides that our culture is all about fete wine and jam all year round.

Nobody here wants to build motherboards or software, these would be people passionate and dedicate their lives to this field. Even Engineering and computer science majors in UWI does fete and drink rum. Soon as they graduate they looking for ah government wuk first thing or ah teaching wuk so they can get paid for the summer while they relax. Do you know what it takes to succeed in this field of exporting ICT products that the world actually wants and willing to pay reasonable money for? I go give you a hint if there is any such person here capable of this, he or she is not staying in any 3rd world country, they will have much better opportunities than anything Rowley could offer them.

ask ASUS or AMD or whoever to come here...and why not? i have close family who in rich countries were senior managers in computer assembly firms. to say trini too poor or we too richer than china is bull. i'd also say those uwi fellas/misses too dotish...

It has nothing to do with wealth or the lack thereof. It has to do with the market being dominated by countries with huge populations and the easy availability of labour. Let me give you an example. I had a friend who was a computer scientist. He made a programme for blind persons which caused him to be published in IEEE journals and a scholarship to a research conference of elite computer scientists in Sweeden. Within four or five months of his attending the conference, guys from all over were making designs similar to his programme and making a killing on it. Trinidad is a small country in a capitalist world where size and and finances mean everything. It is not like if the price of oil is going to stay low forever and we are running out of current supply, there are still fields in the gulf waiting to be tapped, we just don't have the money as yet to facilitate serious exploration

[Trinispougla]

Colm is saying that they want to increase housing construction and get the private sector more involved, in order to provide more jobs for persons. My question is, is it a wise endeavor to encourage persons to take loans when their jobs aren't secured? Also, is it wise to encourage housing construction, given the exorbitant cost of building that we already endure?

The price of land and building materials always decreases significantly during a recession. If you look at the 1980s, many people built their homes during this period. Land in what is now considered prime real estate and I'm not speaking squatters in places like Carenage and Diego Martin could be afforded by public servants

[shake d livin wake d dead]

Colm is saying that they want to increase housing construction and get the private sector more involved, in order to provide more jobs for persons. My question is, is it a wise endeavor to encourage persons to take loans when their jobs aren't secured? Also, is it wise to encourage housing construction, given the exorbitant cost of building that we already endure?

The price of land and building materials always decreases significantly during a recession. If you look at the 1980s, many people built their homes during this period. Land in what is now considered prime real estate and I'm not speaking squatters in places like Carenage and Diego Martin could be afforded by public servants

yes price of land and building materials decreased....but can you say for sure if you would be keeping your job? unless you employed in teaching or within national security then you can be considered "safe"

[Trinispougla]

That is the million dollar question. Well assuming the price stays 30-50 dollars, nobody will really lose theircjobs. Goldman and Saches say it could go as low as twenty but they are American and don't even consider that the demand could go up also together with Iran's re-entry into the market. If it does go that low however, then that idea should be curtailed or shelved until things puck back up. That being said, he just gave an overview. Realistically he could not say everything they were going to do. The biggest thong right now is to conserve foreign exchange.

[EFFECTIC DESIGNS]

Our highly educated workforce leaves trinidad due to lack of decent paying jobs. UWI offers a mere pittance to these scholars for research without realizing how much value they can add to our country.

This is not entirely true, our highly educated workforce leaves Trinidad simply because they CAN since Trinidad is infact a 3rd world country and most don't work in research simply because the pay stinks almost anywhere in the world. My uncle who is now retired and is 76 years old has a PHD in Physics from University of Oxford aswell as an MSc in Computer Science from somewhere in Canada dunno where, never asked about that one. He worked for many years in Canada and the US aswell as in research. He was one of the first local Physics professors at UWI in Trinidad a really long time ago aswell.

In his own words the pay in research stinks both in USA and Canada so your view of UWI paying a tiny amount of money for research field does not hold up since its the same and this is coming from a man who has actually done this. Research is not seen as a job which should be highly paid it never has been. It is seen as a job for people with a passion for science to better mankind. The fact that your friends have complained about the fact that they would love to work in research but pay is too small simply means that they do not have the desire to become very useful in research. They are simply just not unique enough.

Trinis doing something not for money but to better mankind? yeah, nah.

[Trinispougla]

And before job losses occur, a number of measures can be adopted to save jobs. I agree with Roger Hosein in suggesting a wage freeze across the board. In the 1980s, we had the amount of losses because the situation was that bad and the unions were at their most recalcitrant and wage freezes were not even considered. In this case the unions are willing to meet with the government and in time they may understand the challenges we face. Which is also why the private sector, specifically supermarkets need to stop bussin prices on us because then a wage freeze is impossible

[desifemlove]

Actually ZR, $14 is not as bad as you think. E.G in 1984, the price of oil dropped to $9. That equates to 22 dollars in our time. The reason is that the two wars we have fought in this millennium have fundamentally changed the way we price oil. And off course the arab spring and the wars that subsequently followed sent the price sky high

1990s was different to today. No China importing oil, no shale gas.

That said, Dr. R. should be encouraging manufacturing, offering grants to make software/ICT products. No reason why we cannot export motherboards, or smartphones, or get a Foxconn-esque deal here. ICT won't decline in importance, and would gain far more FOREX.

his plan is 6/10 for me. some good points, more could have been/be done.

Software products?

Export motherboards?

Have you seen how cheaply them Indians does work for on Freelance websites? you feel we could compete with that? actually I work cheaper than Indians for software development and I am close to start offering mobile app development service in 2016. And the pay is really low overall, I survive because I live rent free.

I have a video game in the works in Unreal Engine 4 that I expect to launch in 2017 on Steam all done in C++ coding. I do it all myself if Vladimir Romanyuk could make "space engine" by himself then I too can make a decent game myself. And even then I am expecting to make no more than $500 US a month. Especially after the 30% steam cut.

Dude we cannot compete with Asia in exporting ICT products be it software or hardware. Hardware companies are struggling all around the world just to stay in business. You know how hard it is to make motherboards? and when you do how do you compete against well known companies like ASUS and Samsung? This country only has 1.3 million or so people. Besides that our culture is all about fete wine and jam all year round.

Nobody here wants to build motherboards or software, these would be people passionate and dedicate their lives to this field. Even Engineering and computer science majors in UWI does fete and drink rum. Soon as they graduate they looking for ah government wuk first thing or ah teaching wuk so they can get paid for the summer while they relax. Do you know what it takes to succeed in this field of exporting ICT products that the world actually wants and willing to pay reasonable money for? I go give you a hint if there is any such person here capable of this, he or she is not staying in any 3rd world country, they will have much better opportunities than anything Rowley could offer them.

ask ASUS or AMD or whoever to come here...and why not? i have close family who in rich countries were senior managers in computer assembly firms. to say trini too poor or we too richer than china is bull. i'd also say those uwi fellas/misses too dotish...

It has nothing to do with wealth or the lack thereof. It has to do with the market being dominated by countries with huge populations and the easy availability of labour. Let me give you an example. I had a friend who was a computer scientist. He made a programme for blind persons which caused him to be published in IEEE journals and a scholarship to a research conference of elite computer scientists in Sweeden. Within four or five months of his attending the conference, guys from all over were making designs similar to his programme and making a killing on it. Trinidad is a small country in a capitalist world where size and and finances mean everything. It is not like if the price of oil is going to stay low forever and we are running out of current supply, there are still fields in the gulf waiting to be tapped, we just don't have the money as yet to facilitate serious exploration

better marketing. ict is huge, it's about finding niches and building the infrastructure. so if PNM or UNC even got a firm here to build network cabling or switches or servers, and offered to train trinis for a wuk dey, you would still say "trini too small"?

[Redman]

The single truth is that over the last 20 years...the greatest impediment to diversification has been the GOVERNMENT.
Regardless of party.

Every government has unwittingly prevented great ideas and industries from germinating and maturing here in TnT.


So the GORTT does not and should not be THE Catylyst.....they need to be an early stage enabler.


Thus far they have been a negative influence on innovation and entrepreneurship.

GORTT just needs to get the fack out of the way

[Trinispougla]

Our highly educated workforce leaves trinidad due to lack of decent paying jobs. UWI offers a mere pittance to these scholars for research without realizing how much value they can add to our country.

This is not entirely true, our highly educated workforce leaves Trinidad simply because they CAN since Trinidad is infact a 3rd world country and most don't work in research simply because the pay stinks almost anywhere in the world. My uncle who is now retired and is 76 years old has a PHD in Physics from University of Oxford aswell as an MSc in Computer Science from somewhere in Canada dunno where, never asked about that one. He worked for many years in Canada and the US aswell as in research. He was one of the first local Physics professors at UWI in Trinidad a really long time ago aswell.

In his own words the pay in research stinks both in USA and Canada so your view of UWI paying a tiny amount of money for research field does not hold up since its the same and this is coming from a man who has actually done this. Research is not seen as a job which should be highly paid it never has been. It is seen as a job for people with a passion for science to better mankind. The fact that your friends have complained about the fact that they would love to work in research but pay is too small simply means that they do not have the desire to become very useful in research. They are simply just not unique enough.

Trinis doing something not for money but to better mankind? yeah, nah.

Exactly, ED. Reaserchers things are either copied or outrightly taken from.them by Big rich cooperations. Many people feel Steve Jobs was the brains behind Apple. Steve Jobs wasn't even an engineer or technician. Steve Wozniaki was the brain. He designed the circuitry and the interface. And to add to that, he left apple totally disgusted with Jobs because he had given a copy of the program to Bill Gates who proceeded to make an altogether inferior copy but much more cos effective. Nikola Tesla is the father of induction motors yet he died virtually penniless and slightly insane while Thomas Edison died a very wealthy man with Tesla's work. U tink any Trini willing to go and be starving like Marvin in a lab whole day chief. My friend got only recognition out of that trip, he still had to come back here and work

[EFFECTIC DESIGNS]

better marketing. ict is huge, it's about finding niches and building the infrastructure. so if PNM or UNC even got a firm here to build network cabling or switches or servers, and offered to train trinis for a wuk dey, you would still say "trini too small"?

We cannot build network cables, switches or servers from here for export. It all comes from China, and we cannot compete with China's 40 cents an hour wage and huge competent workforce. We can only build it for ourselves to make any kind of sense. This is not the same as export, after our $2.50 wage an hour, and you add shipping cost you are in a problem this is why VOLVO and Mercedes Benz have manufacturing plants in Brazil.

There are also companies building servers down here aswell. Its not hard to assemble a server and install an OS on it. so yes Trini is too small and our minimum wage is too high.
Did you know some US companies are pulling out of China now because they find 40 cents an hour is too much to pay a Chinese worker? they are going where its cheaper, like Vietnam etc for 30 cents etc

[Trinispougla]

Actually ZR, $14 is not as bad as you think. E.G in 1984, the price of oil dropped to $9. That equates to 22 dollars in our time. The reason is that the two wars we have fought in this millennium have fundamentally changed the way we price oil. And off course the arab spring and the wars that subsequently followed sent the price sky high

1990s was different to today. No China importing oil, no shale gas.

That said, Dr. R. should be encouraging manufacturing, offering grants to make software/ICT products. No reason why we cannot export motherboards, or smartphones, or get a Foxconn-esque deal here. ICT won't decline in importance, and would gain far more FOREX.

his plan is 6/10 for me. some good points, more could have been/be done.

Software products?

Export motherboards?

Have you seen how cheaply them Indians does work for on Freelance websites? you feel we could compete with that? actually I work cheaper than Indians for software development and I am close to start offering mobile app development service in 2016. And the pay is really low overall, I survive because I live rent free.

I have a video game in the works in Unreal Engine 4 that I expect to launch in 2017 on Steam all done in C++ coding. I do it all myself if Vladimir Romanyuk could make "space engine" by himself then I too can make a decent game myself. And even then I am expecting to make no more than $500 US a month. Especially after the 30% steam cut.

Dude we cannot compete with Asia in exporting ICT products be it software or hardware. Hardware companies are struggling all around the world just to stay in business. You know how hard it is to make motherboards? and when you do how do you compete against well known companies like ASUS and Samsung? This country only has 1.3 million or so people. Besides that our culture is all about fete wine and jam all year round.

Nobody here wants to build motherboards or software, these would be people passionate and dedicate their lives to this field. Even Engineering and computer science majors in UWI does fete and drink rum. Soon as they graduate they looking for ah government wuk first thing or ah teaching wuk so they can get paid for the summer while they relax. Do you know what it takes to succeed in this field of exporting ICT products that the world actually wants and willing to pay reasonable money for? I go give you a hint if there is any such person here capable of this, he or she is not staying in any 3rd world country, they will have much better opportunities than anything Rowley could offer them.

ask ASUS or AMD or whoever to come here...and why not? i have close family who in rich countries were senior managers in computer assembly firms. to say trini too poor or we too richer than china is bull. i'd also say those uwi fellas/misses too dotish...

It has nothing to do with wealth or the lack thereof. It has to do with the market being dominated by countries with huge populations and the easy availability of labour. Let me give you an example. I had a friend who was a computer scientist. He made a programme for blind persons which caused him to be published in IEEE journals and a scholarship to a research conference of elite computer scientists in Sweeden. Within four or five months of his attending the conference, guys from all over were making designs similar to his programme and making a killing on it. Trinidad is a small country in a capitalist world where size and and finances mean everything. It is not like if the price of oil is going to stay low forever and we are running out of current supply, there are still fields in the gulf waiting to be tapped, we just don't have the money as yet to facilitate serious exploration

better marketing. ict is huge, it's about finding niches and building the infrastructure. so if PNM or UNC even got a firm here to build network cabling or switches or servers, and offered to train trinis for a wuk dey, you would still say "trini too small"?

If there are hundreds of facturies each in china, india, Korea, Indonesia, how you expect to compete with countries with close to three billion people in total eh

[EFFECTIC DESIGNS]

Exactly, ED. Reaserchers things are either copied or outrightly taken from.them by Big rich cooperations. Many people feel Steve Jobs was the brains behind Apple. Steve Jobs wasn't even an engineer or technician. Steve Wozniaki was the brain. He designed the circuitry and the interface. And to add to that, he left apple totally disgusted with Jobs because he had given a copy of the program to Bill Gates who proceeded to make an altogether inferior copy but much more cos effective. Nikola Tesla is the father of induction motors yet he died virtually penniless and slightly insane while Thomas Edison died a very wealthy man with Tesla's work. U tink any Trini willing to go and be starving like Marvin in a lab whole day chief. My friend got only recognition out of that trip, he still had to come back here and work

Exactly I dunno why people here find this difficult to understand. Do you know anyone here willing to give up things like having a family just to pursue these fields of research? real researchers spend all their life trying to develop something, trying to find the cure for something with complaints about not enough budget but never once allowing said budget to get in their way of fulfilling their dream.

A real researcher while upset at a budget cut, lack of pay increase will still not allow that to get in this way of his or her research. Like I say, 1.3 million people does not allow for a high enough chance to find enough unique people to make research worth its name in this country. Its like a person wanting to go back to school to become say a Electrical Engineer. He or she will never be working to design circuits for say Apple or Samsung.

Hoss let me just show you something real simple, my Physics professor from UTT he has a PHd in a Physics subject I forgot the full name, this is from University of Florida, this guy worked for Intel designing the Intel core 2 duo, his role was important in heat management of the chip getting 2 cores on the same die while keeping current and heat at a minimal. He worked in research, he had a passion, after a while he was let go, when he tried to renew his work visa the person told him "I will be honest sir, you are good but you're not good enough"

[Trinispougla]

The only people who make any money on research is economists and they does find creative ways to buss price on ppl sobthey in high demand for big cooperations

[EmilioA]

If you want to fix the economy you need to fix corruption.

Places like Singapore and Estonia got where they are by at least appearing low corruption so the finance and banking sectors had confidence in establishing there.

If you try and build a finance sector here it go look like a next drug cartel operation.

Also Singapore's manufacturing sector is built on buying cheap sheit from China/Indonesia/ Malaysia and assembling it and stamping made in Singapore so as to achieve a mark up.

Again its a generational plan needed for made in T&T to be seen as a positive in itself.

What we need is to talk to Brazil and see where we could link up and where any slight advantages TT has could make us attractive to Brazilian manufacturing companies.

[Habit7]

The single truth is that over the last 20 years...the greatest impediment to diversification has been the GOVERNMENT.
Regardless of party.

Every government has unwittingly prevented great ideas and industries from germinating and maturing here in TnT.


So the GORTT does not and should not be THE Catylyst.....they need to be an early stage enabler.


Thus far they have been a negative influence on innovation and entrepreneurship.

GORTT just needs to get the fack out of the way

I can't say I agree. They have been attempts to diversify, it is just that it wasn't continued across admins.

Looking ahead: 2016

Rapheal John-Lall

Published: Thursday, December 31, 2015


Look to smelter: Viable source of forex

The Government has to find new ways to earn revenue in 2016 to survive the collapse of oil prices, says Karen Tesheira, who served as finance minister between 2007 and 2010 under the Patrick Manning administration.

“The Government has a hard task ahead of it. It will be a difficult year. They have put forward some of the revenue generating measures they will attempt to put in place like increasing taxation, setting up the Revenue Authority, re-establishing the property tax and so on. I know the Prime Minster will be apprising us of the seriousness of the situation and people will know that we are going through a period of austerity. This is the time to tighten our belts,” she told the Business Guardian on Tuesday morning in a telephone interview.

Tesheira said oil and gas natural prices are not going to recover anytime soon.

“The United States is now a large oil producer. They have cut their imports by half. They no longer import from Nigeria. The OPEC countries like Saudi Arabia have indicated they have no intention of reducing their supply. Iran will be increasing its oil production. When you put those factors together one cannot expect the oil and gas prices to rebound in the short to medium term,” she said.

To combat this scenario, she suggested that T&T increase oil exploration as advanced technology allows for quicker finds in a shorter period.

She said T&T needs to diversify its economy urgently to move out of the economic slump it now finds itself in.

She added that there was some diversification in the past in the energy sector and pointed to the Point Lisas industrial complex built in the 1970s and the more recent Atlantic liquefied natural gas (LNG) trains.

“These were all a brainchild of the PNM. This is the time for the Keynesian model of economics to take place.The Government will have to take the lead and find mechanisms for generation of foreign exchange.”

She expanded this by saying that the Government should take the lead in the economic recovery.

When asked about the possible impact it may have on inflation, Tesheira said there is a “risk” in everything.

“I am not saying the Government should just build more roads, I am speaking about new industrial plants—like the aluminium smelter plants—and other industrial projects. We just cannot take austerity measures. We have to take strong measures to earn other sources of revenues.”

Manning era projects

Tesheira referred to plans during her tenure when that government was considering the setting up of the controversial aluminium smelter plant which was carded to be built in La Brea. 

“Had that plant been built we would not have been in the situation we are in today. The prices of aluminium have not depressed. I think what Dr Rowley is going to do is follow through on some of the initiatives started under Patrick Manning. The aluminium smelter plant might be back on the table. The polypropylene and polyethylene and the plastic industry, we have to go up the value chain and look at those. We have to set up those production streams.”

According to the Economic Intelligence Unit of the Economist Magazine, forecasts for July 2015 showed that in 2013, aluminium was US $1,846.7 a tonne, in 2014 it was US $1,867.4, while in 2015 it dropped slightly to $1,779.8 a tonne. In 2016, it is expected to go back up to $ 1,912.5 a tonne.

She also said this government should continue the work to turn T&T into an international financial centre (IFC).

“We are flushed with liquidity. The Central Bank has had to issue treasury bills to mop up over $4 billion of excess liquidity. We have banks bursting at the seams with money ready to invest. It was under the PNM administration that the IFC was set up. This is another stream for diversification.”

Tesheira said T&T also has a highly educated population which will form the base for a strong industrialised economy. 

“When you look at countries like Japan and Malaysia they had no resources but they used their people. We have the College of Science, Technology and Applied Arts (COSTATT), University of T&T (UTT) and other institutions.”

She said there are major differences between NAR-era recession during the late 1980s and the situation now.

“For one, we do not have $142 million in foreign exchange reserves as was the case in the 1980s. Now, we have over US$10 billion in reserves and that is 11 and a half months of import cover. Look at Barbados, they have only 16 weeks of import cover. Also, our unemployment is like Greece. We have been through that deep recession and we survived.”

She also said this Government has its new Economic Advisory Board made up of professionals with economic and finance backgrounds who will provide sound advice.

When asked if she believes the new Government will be forced to return to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) she pointed to recent statements by the Prime Minister who said he has no intention of doing that.

“There are so many differences between what we experienced during the 1980s and now,” she said.

She hopes that many Patrick Manning era plans that were discarded will be revived.

“One of the reasons why Standard and Poor’s and Moody’s downgraded us was our failure to implement. The last PP Government failed to do that. We can now implement many of the projects which are going to allow for us to earn foreign exchange.”
http://m.guardian.co.tt/business-guardi ... ahead-2016

[DVSTT]

Colm is saying that they want to increase housing construction and get the private sector more involved, in order to provide more jobs for persons. My question is, is it a wise endeavor to encourage persons to take loans when their jobs aren't secured? Also, is it wise to encourage housing construction, given the exorbitant cost of building that we already endure?

The price of land and building materials always decreases significantly during a recession. If you look at the 1980s, many people built their homes during this period. Land in what is now considered prime real estate and I'm not speaking squatters in places like Carenage and Diego Martin could be afforded by public servants

yes price of land and building materials decreased....but can you say for sure if you would be keeping your job? unless you employed in teaching or within national security then you can be considered "safe"

My thinking is that in the 1980s the country did not have as much money as it does today, the people with cash on hand will most likely buy up whatever comes up not so?
Also how will the drug economy influence our legitimate economy during the hard times?

[Trinispougla]

The single truth is that over the last 20 years...the greatest impediment to diversification has been the GOVERNMENT.
Regardless of party.

Every government has unwittingly prevented great ideas and industries from germinating and maturing here in TnT.


So the GORTT does not and should not be THE Catylyst.....they need to be an early stage enabler.


Thus far they have been a negative influence on innovation and entrepreneurship.

GORTT just needs to get the fack out of the way

I can't say I agree. They have been attempts to diversify, it is just that it wasn't continued across admins.

Looking ahead: 2016

Rapheal John-Lall

Published: Thursday, December 31, 2015


Look to smelter: Viable source of forex

The Government has to find new ways to earn revenue in 2016 to survive the collapse of oil prices, says Karen Tesheira, who served as finance minister between 2007 and 2010 under the Patrick Manning administration.

“The Government has a hard task ahead of it. It will be a difficult year. They have put forward some of the revenue generating measures they will attempt to put in place like increasing taxation, setting up the Revenue Authority, re-establishing the property tax and so on. I know the Prime Minster will be apprising us of the seriousness of the situation and people will know that we are going through a period of austerity. This is the time to tighten our belts,” she told the Business Guardian on Tuesday morning in a telephone interview.

Tesheira said oil and gas natural prices are not going to recover anytime soon.

“The United States is now a large oil producer. They have cut their imports by half. They no longer import from Nigeria. The OPEC countries like Saudi Arabia have indicated they have no intention of reducing their supply. Iran will be increasing its oil production. When you put those factors together one cannot expect the oil and gas prices to rebound in the short to medium term,” she said.

To combat this scenario, she suggested that T&T increase oil exploration as advanced technology allows for quicker finds in a shorter period.

She said T&T needs to diversify its economy urgently to move out of the economic slump it now finds itself in.

She added that there was some diversification in the past in the energy sector and pointed to the Point Lisas industrial complex built in the 1970s and the more recent Atlantic liquefied natural gas (LNG) trains.

“These were all a brainchild of the PNM. This is the time for the Keynesian model of economics to take place.The Government will have to take the lead and find mechanisms for generation of foreign exchange.”

She expanded this by saying that the Government should take the lead in the economic recovery.

When asked about the possible impact it may have on inflation, Tesheira said there is a “risk” in everything.

“I am not saying the Government should just build more roads, I am speaking about new industrial plants—like the aluminium smelter plants—and other industrial projects. We just cannot take austerity measures. We have to take strong measures to earn other sources of revenues.”

Manning era projects

Tesheira referred to plans during her tenure when that government was considering the setting up of the controversial aluminium smelter plant which was carded to be built in La Brea. 

“Had that plant been built we would not have been in the situation we are in today. The prices of aluminium have not depressed. I think what Dr Rowley is going to do is follow through on some of the initiatives started under Patrick Manning. The aluminium smelter plant might be back on the table. The polypropylene and polyethylene and the plastic industry, we have to go up the value chain and look at those. We have to set up those production streams.”

According to the Economic Intelligence Unit of the Economist Magazine, forecasts for July 2015 showed that in 2013, aluminium was US $1,846.7 a tonne, in 2014 it was US $1,867.4, while in 2015 it dropped slightly to $1,779.8 a tonne. In 2016, it is expected to go back up to $ 1,912.5 a tonne.

She also said this government should continue the work to turn T&T into an international financial centre (IFC).

“We are flushed with liquidity. The Central Bank has had to issue treasury bills to mop up over $4 billion of excess liquidity. We have banks bursting at the seams with money ready to invest. It was under the PNM administration that the IFC was set up. This is another stream for diversification.”

Tesheira said T&T also has a highly educated population which will form the base for a strong industrialised economy. 

“When you look at countries like Japan and Malaysia they had no resources but they used their people. We have the College of Science, Technology and Applied Arts (COSTATT), University of T&T (UTT) and other institutions.”

She said there are major differences between NAR-era recession during the late 1980s and the situation now.

“For one, we do not have $142 million in foreign exchange reserves as was the case in the 1980s. Now, we have over US$10 billion in reserves and that is 11 and a half months of import cover. Look at Barbados, they have only 16 weeks of import cover. Also, our unemployment is like Greece. We have been through that deep recession and we survived.”

She also said this Government has its new Economic Advisory Board made up of professionals with economic and finance backgrounds who will provide sound advice.

When asked if she believes the new Government will be forced to return to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) she pointed to recent statements by the Prime Minister who said he has no intention of doing that.

“There are so many differences between what we experienced during the 1980s and now,” she said.

She hopes that many Patrick Manning era plans that were discarded will be revived.

“One of the reasons why Standard and Poor’s and Moody’s downgraded us was our failure to implement. The last PP Government failed to do that. We can now implement many of the projects which are going to allow for us to earn foreign exchange.”
http://m.guardian.co.tt/business-guardi ... ahead-2016

The sad thing about that smelter was the fact that environmentally, it was nowhere as bad as it was projected to be. Pre-baked anodes which trap harmful gasses from the process in a silo is the major way of eliminating air pollution which was the major concern. Unfortunately, we have the dumbest media in the world so any clown using big words and a smooth tounge got some air or radio play. New Zealand which is praised worldwide for it's greenery and some of the least polluted waters on earth has a smelter. The smelter however got tied up in a whole bunch of unsavoury, nothing to do with finance, like politics, race, reel nasty stuff. And of course our position is further weakened by the fact the we used a pound of our own flesh to finance the highway.

[EFFECTIC DESIGNS]

The smelter is a great idea, Aluminum is expensive and the price isn't going down. At one point it was impossible for big names in the phone market to get Aluminum in China because Apple was literally using up all the aluminum for iphones and macbooks etc

[Daran]

Trinispougla, I never really opposed the smelter. I was actually lined up for a job there after seeing that it was indeed environmentally friendly, no use crying over spilt milk though.

The thing about research is that it pays low in the US/UK because there's essentially an oversupply of graduates who want to do this, hence the low pay.

In Trinidad it's the opposite, entire departments in UWI sometimes have a handful of researchers who are doing menial work at low standards. There's no lineup of competent research students waiting knocking on the door of UWI to get the measly 6-8k/mo salary. You need to pay them, at least, 12K minimum, and more depending on their competance.

What I've been suggesting for many years now (especially to Bhoe who understood this), was we needed to get back more of our Ivy League and Oxbridge/LSE/Imperial/UCL/Edinburgh graduates and give them incentives to do research and work within UWI. Creating an entire ICT/STEM research group in UWI that does actual work locally, not just pie in the sky research. Create entrepreneurs out of them, there are tonnes of areas such as biotechnology, pharmaceuticals (relating to tropical diseases and vaccines), high tech software, computational and engineering models etc that we can become research centres for internationally. This isn't far fetched, I personally know trinis who are living right here in Trinidad who are doing this with tiny companies, some supporting systems and research for multi-billion dollar US businesses.

This is a very low cost industry that if started sooner, could reap rewards in many business areas in future.

[desifemlove]

better marketing. ict is huge, it's about finding niches and building the infrastructure. so if PNM or UNC even got a firm here to build network cabling or switches or servers, and offered to train trinis for a wuk dey, you would still say "trini too small"?

We cannot build network cables, switches or servers from here for export. It all comes from China, and we cannot compete with China's 40 cents an hour wage and huge competent workforce. We can only build it for ourselves to make any kind of sense. This is not the same as export, after our $2.50 wage an hour, and you add shipping cost you are in a problem this is why VOLVO and Mercedes Benz have manufacturing plants in Brazil.

There are also companies building servers down here aswell. Its not hard to assemble a server and install an OS on it. so yes Trini is too small and our minimum wage is too high.
Did you know some US companies are pulling out of China now because they find 40 cents an hour is too much to pay a Chinese worker? they are going where its cheaper, like Vietnam etc for 30 cents etc

Creativity...niches.....there are many small and big firms that make ict goods in rich countries, because they found a niche. this is how firms enter industries. again, trini wont get anywhere. you all mentioned china and singapore, they found their niche...T&T must too.

[Trinispougla]

The funny thing is Daran, there are thousands of research scientists all over the works doing these very things. Look the the person they brought to solve red mite deaseses in coconuts was from India(although no one wss really sure of her competence and Mayaro stll teeming with mites). Funny thing is UTT was meant to be a centre of research into manufacturing and I hear colm say they going to put it back to its original mandate. As for Bhoe, UWI's current impotence started under him. UWI's only work of serious research was the g-pan which is an area of R&D which we can compete in. The steelpan is one of the most in demand instruments in the world and making an instrument that is superior in acoustics, sound, pitch was a real opportunity. Unfortunately that went with the wind after the professor was villified in public(wrongly so as in the case of Prof Ken Julien) and Bhoe was part of the committee that cancelled the smelter so he is an academic, certainly, a visionary, far from it.

[Trinispougla]

better marketing. ict is huge, it's about finding niches and building the infrastructure. so if PNM or UNC even got a firm here to build network cabling or switches or servers, and offered to train trinis for a wuk dey, you would still say "trini too small"?

We cannot build network cables, switches or servers from here for export. It all comes from China, and we cannot compete with China's 40 cents an hour wage and huge competent workforce. We can only build it for ourselves to make any kind of sense. This is not the same as export, after our $2.50 wage an hour, and you add shipping cost you are in a problem this is why VOLVO and Mercedes Benz have manufacturing plants in Brazil.

There are also companies building servers down here aswell. Its not hard to assemble a server and install an OS on it. so yes Trini is too small and our minimum wage is too high.
Did you know some US companies are pulling out of China now because they find 40 cents an hour is too much to pay a Chinese worker? they are going where its cheaper, like Vietnam etc for 30 cents etc

Creativity...niches.....there are many small and big firms that make ict goods in rich countries, because they found a niche. this is how firms enter industries. again, trini wont get anywhere. you all mentioned china and singapore, they found their niche...T&T must too.

Firstly, Singapore has about six or seven hundred thousand more people than us. Our population in comparison to china is in powers. Secondly geographically Singapore and China are in a fertile region to expand their empire. Besides Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan, you have some moderate to very poor countries in their vicinity. Thailand, doh mind the tourism and Phillipines moderate. Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, very poor. Export to those places from china and Singapore is virtually zilch and very few people are competing on the market. You think Samsung and Apple care about fighting China in a place where GDP is 5 or 6? Secondly, you really can't expect the government to fund an initiative that may or may not be there. That would be fiscally irresponsible. Even in india, their quality research not even carried out by public universities. Tata cooperation alone has two universities dedicated to R&D. You can't fund research on government coffers. All those universities Daran talking about is not government chief, that is private money from a board of trustees that are some of the richest people in the world. TT filthy rich but we don't have that sort of money

[Redman]

I can't say I agree. They have been attempts to diversify, it is just that it wasn't continued across admins.

Well hence the differentiation between PARTY and GORTT

If both parties are willing to stifle xyz simply because ABC initiated it.......then its the GORTT...not the party.
We have a SYSTEM that needs changing.

And frankly we have MULTIPLE projects that have died on the vine simply because political decisions were made...

1)We have several ship yard plans-REALLY plausible and viable ideas almost 10 years waiting.
2)operation center for sat radio,
3)renewable industry that would have kept the Caroni farmers planting cane, and more.
4) Hemispheric Center for training global industry.

All were capable of generating employment,skil transfer and forex on relevant scale to the economy
All the above were terminally frustrated by political myopia of multiple parties.

It means that just from people here we could have seen many more ideas developed and in play to diversify from the dependence on oil.

[Trinispougla]

Exactly redman. Politics was also the reason the smelter went to the fishes.

[DVSTT]

Do you all believe we'd see a change of system in our lifetimes? I for one don't think we will, not as long as the sheep willing to follow.

[Redman]

Do you all believe we'd see a change of system in our lifetimes? I for one don't think we will, not as long as the sheep willing to follow.

Well we need more people to ask and find out....'WHY NOT?????

why cant we change?
Why cant we cut the food import bill?
Why cant ZR retire under the UNC govt...but is planning to under this here PNM????


These and other important questions need to be asked and detailed answered provided..