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  • 1 year ago
Former Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine warns that tough days are ahead. He, like many others, says the country needs to find ways to attract foreign exchange.

Nicole M Romany reports.
Transcript
00:00The former Energy Minister says the forex problem is not going to improve any time in
00:06the near future. In fact, he forecasts that things may only get worse. However, he is
00:13advising that urgent steps be taken to treat with the issue.
00:17You speak to people in the private sector and they will tell you, the US dollar is the
00:21lifeblood, is the, you know, whatever metaphor you want to use, it is the lifeblood of the
00:28commerce in Trinidad and Tobago.
00:30Ram Narain notes that the finance minister in an affidavit spoke about the likelihood
00:36of the Manatee Project manifesting. But Ram Narain says if it happens, it is welcomed,
00:42but it remains uncertain.
00:44We are still very much in the woods and there's a difficult period and I keep saying there's
00:51a difficult economic period and you may, people listening might say, well, what are you talking
00:57about? We are in a difficult period already. And they are right. But there is an even more
01:01difficult portion of the road to walk in 2024, 25, 26 and I would say 2027 before the Manatee
01:10Project happens.
01:11He predicts there may be some improvement in the gas production in late 2027 into 2028.
01:20The former Energy Minister tells TV6 that other avenues of earning foreign capital have
01:26to be considered, noting that local businesses are being severely hampered.
01:31Is there three options? Option one is devaluation slash depreciation, which is a painful medicine.
01:39Option two is to increase oil and gas production to the point where it stabilizes these reserves.
01:45That is not going to happen for a while. And there are a lot of uncertainties around that.
01:51And option three is a diversified economy and that is a longer term, a longer term solution
01:56to the problem.
01:57Ram Narain is suggesting a rapid investment and development of non-energy enterprises
02:03to help boost the country's ability to earn foreign exchange.
02:07And it has to happen in, not in an incremental way. It has to happen in a very sharp and
02:14sudden way. I like to use the term Big Bang. It has to be almost like a Big Bang approach,
02:20you know. And it has, you know, there's one area which I constantly talk about, which
02:26I see the country missing the, you know, sorry for no pun intended, missing the boat, which
02:32is the maritime services sector. I mean, we have all the ingredients in Trinidad to make
02:37that a world class sector. And then we have the demand picking up tremendously from Guyana
02:43and Suriname.
02:44Nicole M Romany, TV6 News.
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