T&T should rank 60th on the Global Competitiveness Index by 2014, says Minister of Planning and Sustainable Development Dr Bhoendradatt Tewarie. Currently, the country is 81st, having moved up three notches since 2010. However, Tewarie said this was not good enough. "Barbados is 41 and I really think that we should be a lot better and we should certainly be in the top 40."
He was speaking in an interview on Monday at his office, Level 13, Financial Complex, Port-of-Spain. He said the Council for Competitiveness and Innovation was mandated to ensure the country moved up 20 places by 2014. Tewarie said the council ought to do what was required to secure that spot. He said, "Whatever has to be done, they should find a way to do it.
"I cannot have a competitiveness situation in Trinidad and Tobago where we are 81. It is just not good enough." He said addressing competitiveness meant dealing with technology, innovation, broadband, training workers in industry and worker productivity.
Tewarie, who replaced Mary King just about a year ago, said he was "absolutely pleased" with his performance. He said, "We could have achieved more, we would like to do more, and we would like to impact better on the population. "The idea now is to intensify our efforts on the population." He said the Government's five priorities were:
• Crime reduction and containment
• Food security
• Poverty reduction and human development
• Health and hospitals
• Economic growth and diversification
Asked how he felt the Government had performed since winning the May 2010 general elections, Tewarie said the Government had made significant progress. He said, "We are very much on track in terms of our policies. "We have not achieved things as fast as we had hoped but we are making definite progress in a lot of key areas and we hope to be able to achieve many of the things we identified as areas for achievement by the end of our term in 2015."
