As the nation prepares its 2025–2026 national budget, voices from across the economic spectrum are growing louder — warning that the country can no longer rely on oil and gas alone.
At a recent pre-budget forum hosted by the University of the West Indies, stakeholders in tourism, agriculture, manufacturing, and academia painted a sobering picture — one of stalled diversification, crumbling infrastructure, and a fragile economy at risk.
00:00As Trinidad and Tobago prepares for its 2025-2026 national budget, calls are growing for urgent diversification beyond oil and gas.
00:11At the University of the West Indies pre-budget forum, stakeholders from tourism, agriculture, manufacturing and academia warned that systematic issues threaten the country's future resilience.
00:27Tour guide and teacher Ada Mohamed told the forum that poor public facilities are turning cruise visitors away.
00:36Could you imagine how appalled these tourists were coming in?
00:42They came off the ship, they did a port-a-spin city tour, go to use the washroom and there wasn't any simple thing as toilet paper nor soap.
00:51Some of the responses were, I'm not coming back here again.
00:55She suggested simple fixes like seasonal attendance and creative products such as helicopter tours to the library pitch lake.
01:05In agriculture, dairy farmer Donnie Rogers warned of rising imports and collapsing productivity.
01:13In four years, our food import bill went from 5.3 to 7.1 or 7.2.
01:21If nothing is done in this financial year coming up, statistically, by the next five years, food production may be cost prohibitive.
01:33From manufacturing, TTMA CEO Dr. Ramesh Ramdeen urged the government to fix inefficiencies, while economist Dr. Indira Sajuan noted that the government has inherited a fragile economy.
01:48There was a situation where gross domestic product has rarely averaged near zero for the last five years.
01:55And for the last approximately ten years, it has been quite abysmal.
01:59The economy in the first quarter of 2025, and this is very noteworthy, it shrunk by 2.1% first quarter of 2025.
02:09And the energy sector contracted by minus 4.8%.
02:14And the non-energy sector by minus 1%.
02:19Development economist Dr. Vanash James added that the country must rethink its model, pointing to underemployment and weak diversification policies.
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