Economist Professor Roger Hosein says Trinidad and Tobago is not taking sufficient steps in the short or medium term to secure the country's future growth, development, and sustainability. He warns that more attention must be given to strengthening the hotel and tourism sector to ensure long-term economic stability.
00:00Energy Minister Dr. Rudal Munilal has welcomed a rise toward energy analysis projecting that ExxonMobil's latest offshore campaign could bring over U.S. $20 million in new investment to this country.
00:15Speaking to the Express, Minister Munilal said excitement is high in the energy sector following the Prime Minister's revitalization blueprint.
00:23However, economist Professor Roger Hussain warns that while the news is positive, the government must prioritize wisely to ensure long-term gains.
00:36That's excellent. I mean, if you get $20 billion into the economy, Rudal Munilal will have to receive the ORTT.
00:46That's fantastic because it will change the landscape and change the transformation.
00:51What I caution the government on, as we have done as economists over the years, is compartmentalize the energy sector in terms of our focus on energy in the last hundred years.
01:07You know, it has delivered a lot of money, but it has given us an economy with very limited backward and forward linkages.
01:14He advises the government to focus on steady, incremental steps to build the economy, rather than reaching for ambitious leaps that may be unsustainable.
01:26I take the government revitalization plan, I treat it as a long-term vision, and I urge the powers that be to close the gaps now.
01:35So, the short-term and medium-term stepping stone to get us to the long-term, to me, is not sufficiently there, and we would want to be careful to make a misstep if we try to take long strides instead of short measure of a tractable slide.
01:56Further, Professor Hussain says that given the current geopolitical and regional tensions, this country must maintain strong ties with CARICOM.
02:06He points to the recent Category 5 storm in Jamaica as an example, noting that local suppliers of construction materials could benefit from the rebuilding efforts there.
02:17He adds that even if Trinidad and Tobago is not directly drawn into a conflict, history shows that countries caught in the middle often face economic fallout.
02:29Today, he tells the Morning Edition that the nation must prioritize and further develop its visitor sector to strengthen long-term growth.
02:37But the real long-term sustainable bailout of the Trinidad and Tobago economy is to ensure that we improve our hotel occupancy rate, our overnight visitors.
02:52Our overnight visitors, it's a mere 376,000 as compared to 1.2 million in Aruba, 700,000 in Curacao, 500,000 in St. Martin.
03:02These are tiny, tiny islands and we have so much more work to do where we could get a significantly larger amount of revenues from tourism.
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