Former energy minister Eric Williams believes that quality and standards of local content in T&T can be improved. He was delivering the feature address at the T&T Local Content Chamber seminar held at Linx Hotel in San Fernando yesterday. Williams said while T&T may be ahead in some respects of the energy sector, investment into procedures to acquire international quality standards is necessary for the growth of local industries.
"Safety audits are required globally and the local industry should be no different. The processes put in place by the energy industry players to date are benchmarked internationally. The processes are expensive but necessary for the growth of local content capacity," Williams said.
He also noted that "it was not the wise business strategy to depend solely on the benevolence of Government especially as there may be different priorities." Williams said that improving local content can be achieved by fostering innovation, research and education.
Meanwhile, senior economist Indera Sagewan-Alli said educating entrepreneurs was key to improving local capacity. "We must educate late teens by developing sound business models, studying markets, assessing the risks involved and designing and implementing business continuity plans," she said.
Sagewan-Alli also called on banks to assist small and micro enterprises saying too often SMEs experience too many financial constraints. "In T&T only 11 percent of SME start-up funding comes from the banking sector while 70 per cent comes from personal savings. The inability of commercial banks to evaluate and price credit risks are among the primary mitigating factors for poor borrowing and high risk," she said.
She added that the financial market is characterised by high commercial bank interest rates, risk aversion by banks and high administrative transaction costs. Sagewan-Alli noted that the majority of SMEs still use outdated technology and lack skills to compete internationally. "Research and Development (R&D) is critical for SME growth."
However, Government senator David Abdulah said quality standards have improved in the manufacturing sector over the past 25 years. He admitted that Government has no new legislation at the moment to improve on local content quality. However, he explained that the T&T Bureau of Standards provides quality assurance.
Abdulah also explained that the Ministry of Trade has been working with the T&T Manufacturers Association to ensure that international quality standards are attained. See Page A11