Amcham: Budget must focus on recovery

THE American Chamber of Commerce (Amcham) said the 2020/2021 budget must outline an economic recovery plan for TT because the covid19 pandemic "has shaken our world and our economy."

In its budget proposal document to the Government, Amcham said the budget must seek to "rebuild and stabilise the economy, increase our country’s resilience, enhance social development and improve the business environment." Amcham added this is critical in recovering and thriving in a post-covid world..

To this end, the chamber identified national security, economic diversification, energy sector policy, digital transformation, ease of doing business and debt management as priorities which it would like to see Government focus on in the budget.

"These six areas, in our estimation, are critical to national development and sustaining and improving the national economy.

On national security, it said the recent upsurge in crime underscores "the need for an aggressive and systematic response" to crime and the criminal element to be paramount. Referring to the Police Manpower Audit Committee report in 2017, Amcham said there are insufficiencies in the police's human resource management.

"Of the 500 officers (of varying ranks) surveyed, approximately 54 per cent felt the TTPS (TT Police Service) was not satisfactorily organised to deal effectively with crime. There are complaints and dissatisfaction. The chamber said the report also referred to tribunal delays, unfair promotions (based on favouritism), loss of the organisation’s reputation and a lack of equipment among other things.

Amcham also suggested an effective performance appraisal system to identify and incentivise those officers who are giving 100 per cent to improve those officers' job satisfaction and output and strengthen key units such as the Cyber Crime Unit and the Fraud Squad as some ways to improve the efficiency of the police.

It said the current environment of depressed energy revenues provided the best time for economic diversification. The establishment of a comprehensive tourism plan; redistributing URP and CEPEP labour for agriculture and extending visas for migrants who want to stay in TT and work in agriculture were some of Amcham's proposals to encourage economic diversification.

In terms of energy sector policy, the chamber said Government should examine the future of the National Gas Corporation and National Petroleum and plans for energy resilience and recovery. On digital transformation, Amcham recommended that Government seek public private partnerships to assist in the delivery of its information and communication technology (ICT) mandate. It said having government departments open later in the evening or running a shift on Saturdays could be ways to improve the ease of doing business in these departments.

On debt management, Amcham said the the debt to GDP ratio rose to 68.1 per cent, even before Government began spending on covid19 medical supplies and relief efforts. Amcham said it is "important to keep our pulse on the size, sustainability and accuracy of the country’s debt stock." It credited the Government's efforts to deal with this issue through the settlement of debts owed to some local contractors and suppliers.