Gopee-Scoon: Govt committed to improving business climate

TRADE and Industry Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon said Government remains committed to improving the country's business climate, encouraging investment and actively supporting the provision of enhanced government trade and business-related services.

Speaking at a business process re-engineering workshop at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Port of Spain on Monday, Gopee-Scoon said the 2019 World Bank Doing Business Report shows TT ranked 105th out of 190.

The doing-business methodology measures regulations affecting ten areas, including starting a business and trading across borders. A cause for concern, she said, is that in the "trading across borders" indicator, which measures the time and cost associated with the logistical process of exporting and importing goods, the country ranks 130 out of 190.

Against this background, Gopee-Scoon said, there is a need to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of government services, and timely delivery of these services to the public and particularly to the business community, is imperative. The Government continues to implement initiatives aimed at having an impact on TT’s overall competitiveness rankings, its performance and efficiency, she said.

In 2009, Government launched the Single Electronic Window (TTBizLink) project to digitise over 47 trade and business-related government services. The objective was to reduce the time and cost of doing business in TT. But Gopee-Scoon said despite TTBizLink’s many successes "excessive public service bureaucracy remains a concern" among businesspeople.

In 2016, Government began a US$25 million Inter-American Development Bank-funded programme to expand TTBizLink, she said, and it is anticipated that when completed, this programme will help the country improve its ease of doing business ranking, as well as other international indicators that measure trade and business facilitation.

Gopee-Scoon said this will make TT "a more attractive place for investment and trade," and this workshop, then, is a key consultancy project under the programme. Its objective is to undertake business process re-engineering for the trade and business sector.

Since the project started in February last year, to date, there have been consultations with 19 government ministries and agencies.

While the proposed changes could generate some discomfort and uncertainty within organisations, Gopee-Scoon said even to reach this stage, vigorous consultation, site visits, interviews, and comparison with international best practice had to be completed. Adopting these changes, she said, will require concerted efforts by stakeholders and committed inter-agency collaboration.