TTMA IN THE NEWS
TTMA head: Give manufacturers enabling environment
Re-elected President of the TT Manufacturers Association Tricia Coosal said the manufacturing sector needs an enabling environment if it is to continue to thrive. Coosal spoke at the TTMA’s webinar on building business resilience on Tuesday. “The private sector wants an enabling environment that is transparent and predictable to operate in,” Coosal said. “We are not seeking to curtail competition. However, we want fair competition. We can create a competitive advantage that will allow us to compete globally if our region is to operate optimally in the truest sense of a single market, with factors in place such as free circulation and contingents rights.” Read more here
Coosal gets second term as TTMA head
The private sector wants an enabling environment that is transparent and predictable to operate in, says Tricia Coosal who has been elected for a second term as president of the T&T Manufacturers’ Association (TTMA). Speaking during a webinar titled, “Resilience in Business” held yesterday Coosal explained, “We are not seeking to curtail competition. However, we want fair competition. “We can create a competitive advantage that will allow us to compete globally if our region is to operate optimally in the truest sense of a single market with factors in place such as free circulation and contingent rights in place.” Read more here
TT manufacturers interested in Guyana but ‘bugbears’ an enduring problem
Manufacturers from Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) have a greater interest in Guyana’s market but enduring trade challenges between the countries remain a problem, Head of the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA) Rafeek Khan says. The GMSA and the Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers’ Association (TTMA), Khan said, have been engaged in dialogue over the past year. Focus has been on sharing ideas, building capacity and ultimately, forging partnerships. Read more here
Gopee-Scoon: Businesses have shown remarkable resilience
Despite the challenges of the past two years, Minister of Trade and Industry Paula Gopee-Scoon has said the business community, and in particular the manufacturing sector, showed “remarkable resilience,” showing growth in some sub-sectors. She made the statement at the TT Manufacturers Association's annual general meeting held virtually on Tuesday. “As a developing country TT continues to remain vulnerable to external and global events, the most recent being covid19 and the Russia/Ukraine War,” she said. “With the business sector becoming more dynamic, resilience requires more than just new ideas, it requires a business model that embraces complexity, uncertainty and interdependence – adaptability is now the new competitive advantage.” Read more here
Coosal gets second term
Tricia Coosal, who was re-elected president of the Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers’ Association (TTMA) for a second term yesterday, vows to improve the ease of doing business. She is the 66th TTMA president. Joining Coosal on the executive are Dale Parson and Emil Ramkissoon as vice-presidents and Josiane Khan as the honorary secretary. During TTMA’s annual meeting webinar yesterday, Coosal identified many of the accomplishments attained by the previous board, including its vaccination drive, hosting four virtual missions in 2021, securing work permits and permission for members of the TTMA to open during the lockdown period and fiscal measures for manufacturers, especially those in the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) sector. She itemised the collaboration with the Ministry of Trade and Industry, exporTT and EXIM Bank for the rollout of initiatives under the Export Booster Initiatives, the FX Facility and Certification Programme to promote and facilitate manufacturers and exporters. Read more here
NEWS
Parents of Rousillac Hindu pupils protest for new school
Worried that cramped conditions and poor ventilation will put their children at greater risk of contracting COVID-19, parents from the Rousillac Hindu School protested yesterday for the completion of a new school. Bearing placards, the parents demonstrated in front of the Rousillac Community Centre, where students have been housed for nine years following a fire that partially destroyed the school at Grants Road in 2003. The students were moved to a temple but in 2005 they returned to a section of the school that was not damaged in the blaze. Under the People’s Partnership administration, the children were relocated to the community centre while the school building was demolished to make way for a new school. Read more here
POLITICS
PM gets report on islandwide outage
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley received the independent report on the island-wide power outage that occurred on February 16 from the Cabinet-appointed committee at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s, yesterday. Chairman of the committee, retired Professor of Electrical Engineering Chandrabhan Sharma, PhD, presented the report to the Prime Minister, along with the former chairman of the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (T&TEC), Structural Engineer and retired UWI Lecturer, Keith Sirju and Acting Superintendent of Police Allister Guevarro. Read more here
BUSINESS
Sirju-Ramnarine joins Republic Bank board
President of American Chamber of Commerce of T&T Caroline Toni Sirju-Ramnarine has joined the Board of Directors at Republic Bank effective April 1. Saying that the needs of Republic Bank’s customers, employees, regulators, and other stakeholders are changing at a rapid pace, Sirju-Ramnarine in a statement added, “It’s wonderful to see Republic Bank addressing these changes in a thoughtful and innovative manner, with sustainable governance being high on the agenda.” According to the statement Sirju-Ramnarine has built a career spanning more than 25 years in the energy sector, during which she held and continues to hold senior leadership in the areas of engineering, business development, project development and management, corporate communications, strategy and planning, and information technology. Read more here
Making new trade links
As consumers continue to grapple with high food prices, due to supply chain constraints globally, trade between Argentina and this country can assist in reducing the price index for food. This was the view of Argentina Ambassador Marcelo Suarez Salvia and Trade and Agricultural consultant Jai Rampersad, during a sit down interview with the Express Business last Friday. Read more here
REGIONAL
Regional integration fundamental to Guyana’s national development- President Ali
President Dr. Irfaan Ali on Monday called regional integration a fundamental pillar of Guyana’s economic development while speaking at a virtual panel discussion. The event, organised by the Global Business Leadership Forum, was chaired by the Executive Director of the Caribbean Export Development Agency, Deodat Maharaj, and included other organisations from North America. The President said that CARICOM has “enormous” economic potential and that Guyana is willing to provide a platform through which investors can realise such. He also mentioned upcoming events to facilitate this, including the country’s hosting of the region’s Agriculture Investment Forum in May. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
Ukraine War: Western leaders to impose further sanctions on Russia
Western leaders are set announce a further set of sanctions against Russia on Wednesday, the US has said. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the measures will target Russian financial and state-owned bodies, as well as some officials and oligarchs. Ms Psaki said the move will "hold accountable the Russian kleptocracy that funds and supports Putin's war". Calls for further sanctions have grown in recent days amid allegations of Russian atrocities in Bucha. The town's mayor told the BBC on Tuesday night that Russian forces had killed around 320 civilians during their occupation of the town, while the discovery of mass graves has caused outage in western capitals. Read more here
6th April 2022