Change behaviours in T&T and raise the retirement age from 60 to 65 in order to increase productivity levels.
These were among suggested solutions to move T&T forward from T&T Chamber of Commerce president Ronald Hinds and economist Dr Roger Hosein at yesterday’s Government think-tank at the Hyatt Regency to drum up solutions to get T&T moving out of its economic circumstances and in new directions away from oil dependency.
Hinds said change in behaviours and certain culture was imperative in order to change T&T’s negative bottom-line “figures.”
He said Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley’s proposal yesterday for private sector investment in priority sector depends on changed behaviours. This is because there is a lot of absenteeism and low productivity in T&T, he added
“If that’s (behaviour) left unchanged it will negatively impact on every sector identified for diversification,” Hinds said.
He said diversification will only be successful if issues that need to be addressed are pre-identified and real cultural shifts are implemented.
Hinds said the Chamber recognised there are complex difficult choices to be made, but noted the current culture is inimical to transformation. While acknowledging business was one of the sectors that needs to change, Hinds said it was inaccurate to call on others to change “if you don’t change yourself.”
On another of the PM’s statements, Hinds said the Forex rate is one of the key drivers of the import/export behaviours. He said proper management of currency depreciation rates could contribute to import reduction and lowering consumption patterns.
Citing the “ferry fiasco, he said value for money could also be obtained by changing systems rather than exhortations only.
Economist Hosein said the labour force participation rate was 59.8 per cent when it should be 75 per cent.
“We’re losing potential productivity,” he added.
Hosein said it was time to consider increasing the retirement age from 60 to 65 to retain institutional memory and increase productivity.
South Chamber president Dr Thackeray Driver said issues to be addressed to move T&T forward included T&T’s ageing population and increasing the retirement age was one option to deal with that, along with migration of people.
Driver said while gas projects were increasing, Government’s revenue wouldn’t increase significantly.