As the local economy continues to face a downturn with little or no construction, loss of jobs, rising food prices, increased cost of living, lack of foreign direct investments and spiralling crime, a senior economist is suggesting that Government looks into the rekindling of the eTecK parks among other things in order to stimulate economic activity.
University lecturer Dr Roger Hosein said the parks were a viable avenue that could generate a significant amount of scarce foreign exchange and also create sustainable jobs.
He also suggested that T&T deepen its trade ties with its Caribbean partners; leverage opportunities with China and India; explore medical tourism, the maritime sector, culture and or fashion industries.
In an interview with the Sunday Guardian, Hosein said for the eTecK parks to kick off involved partnering with the private sector.
He said: “The eTecK parks therefore have the capacity to drive the T&T economy much as Sir Arthur Lewis, in his industrialisation by invitation, especially if the sector firm is from abroad. The eTecK parks offer the opportunity to partner with the diaspora in terms of foreign entities with the capacity to purchase, with a rich stock of human capital and also in many cases, deep enough pockets to engage in investment in T&T.”
He also recommended that T&T consider setting up a “diaspora unit” to aggressively pursue the diaspora to invest here via diaspora bonds or through direct investment in small enterprises.
“This has worked well in Jamaica, the Philippines and Mexico,” he said. But cautioned that in order to facilitate these investments, the State must treat with crime much more aggressively. Hosein said the crime situation was a big disincentive to the private sector.
“Crime has become a tremendous deterrent not just from a social perspective but it has now spilled over into increasing the cost of production of firms as they are unable to run night shifts as smoothly as they would like and it also increases the fixed cost of production in terms of burglar proofing and employing security guards etc.” he said.
From this point, he explained that to stimulate the economy, Government needed to intervene in an “aggressive and not talk-shop” type of way to reduce the crime rate in the economy so that it lowers the per unit cost of operating of firms in the local economy and by extension, increases their competitiveness.
Deepen trade with Caribbean region
The Caribbean represents, in the short run and the medium term, a viable export market.
With natural gas relatively more abundant here than in other Caribbean countries, Hosein felt that Government should capitalise on this to promote exporting to Caribbean countries.
“At the same point in time, I think the State needs to encourage the large private sector firms that would have benefited significantly from the US$75 billion that the economy generated in economic rents to facilitate a process of localised, economic development in the rural parts of the economy, and in so doing, to trigger a type of bottom up growth.
“Elements of this type of approach has already started with bpTT and Atlantic in their formation of the MIPED and LEND programmes, respectively. “
MIPED is the Mayaro Initiative for Enterprise Development that became the first micro-finance lending organisation sponsored by a private non-financial company.
Offshore medical university in Tobago
Saying that the sister isle needed special attention, Hosein said Government should consider working through an offshore medical university in Tobago, catering for foreigners but building on the existing tourism infrastructure of the island.
He said: “This can be done in parallel with the prospective Sandals hotel. At the same point in time, the State should also use part of the Scarborough Hospital for medical tourism. Medical tourism provides a viable route through which scarce foreign exchange can be earned by the Tobago economy.
He added that medical tourism would also help to create sustainable employment opportunities for a cadre of professionals and help to diversify the production platform in Tobago which is very THA-reliant.
Providing a much needed push to the maritime sector, culture and fashion industries could tangibly move off the ground some more and start to generate foreign exchange.
Hosein suggested this must be done in a 12-month plan so that it does not remain talk-shop activity.
He felt too that Government should set out to complete the San Fernando to Point Fortin Highway, which has tremendous potential for opening spare economic space.
He said, “There has also been a lot of talk about the road to Moruga and the road to Valencia; these things must not remain pie in the sky as these types of infrastructural projects, if supported by IDB grants as we have been told, have the capacity to generate enormous amount of linkages with the rest of the economy and therefore stimulate employment and growth.”
