On Monday on a morning television programme, Independent Senator Subhas Ramkelawan told us that the quickest way to get the economy out of recession was by going downstream into plastics in the energy sector. He then turned his attention to the lack of investments by the local private sector even into portfolio investment. He blamed this on the current economic inactivity of the economy and as such the absence of such investment opportunities, saying that the investor will not invest if there is no opportunity to make money.
When the moderator recalled that the Minister of Planning, Economic and Social Restructuring and Gender Affairs, Mary King, had for these reasons called our private sector parasitic, the good senator disagreed, repeating that the local businessman will only invest if the opportunity exists to make money and at present it does not. What the senator is telling us is that the investments required to grow this economy, ie, to increase the wealth of the country, are in downstream energy, yet no opportunity exists for the local businessman to make money.
Surely then he is agreeing with Minister King that the economic development of the country is the responsibility of the Government and in this plantation economy the private sector is about parasitic investments as long as the govern- ment/energy sector-driven economy is thriving.
Victor Darceuil
Via e-mail