An­drea Perez-Sobers

Se­nior Re­porter

an­drea.perez-sobers

@guardian.co.tt

Econ­o­mists Dr Ronald Ramkissoon and Dr Vaalmi­ki Ar­joon say Trinidad and To­ba­go’s new Re­vi­tal­i­sa­tion Blue­print, un­veiled last Thurs­day by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, sets am­bi­tious goals, but its suc­cess will hinge on clear im­ple­men­ta­tion, struc­tur­al re­form, and ac­count­abil­i­ty.

Dr Ar­joon not­ed the need to move be­yond short-term plan­ning con­strained by elec­tion cy­cles.

“For too long, na­tion­al plan­ning has been lim­it­ed to five-year hori­zons,” he told Guardian Me­dia. “This re­vi­tal­i­sa­tion pro­gramme must be backed by long-term, di­ver­si­fied, and re­silient strate­gies. Ma­jor in­fra­struc­ture projects can cre­ate jobs and at­tract in­vest­ment, but on­ly if prop­er­ly fi­nanced and man­aged.”

He rec­om­mend­ed a mix of pub­lic-pri­vate part­ner­ships, gov­ern­ment-to-gov­ern­ment deals, and re­al es­tate in­vest­ment funds to en­sure both rev­enue and sus­tain­abil­i­ty.

Ramkissoon echoed the need for de­ci­sive ac­tion, warn­ing that past plans have fal­tered due to weak fol­low-through.

“T&T has con­sis­tent­ly pre­sent­ed am­bi­tious plans, but too of­ten, im­ple­men­ta­tion fails,” he said. “We need ac­count­abil­i­ty, clear time­lines, and mea­sur­able out­comes. With­out these, even the best ideas re­main on pa­per.”

The blue­print promis­es over 50,000 jobs and more than 100 in­fra­struc­ture projects aimed at eco­nom­ic di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion and in­creased for­eign ex­change earn­ings.

Both econ­o­mists stressed that turn­ing this vi­sion in­to re­al­i­ty re­quires more than an­nounce­ments.

“We must iden­ti­fy the agen­cies re­spon­si­ble, de­fine their man­dates, and en­sure they are equipped to ex­e­cute,” Ramkissoon said. “In­vest­ment alone is not enough. There must be a co­her­ent strat­e­gy for project se­lec­tion, re­source al­lo­ca­tion, and mon­i­tor­ing progress.”

Ar­joon high­light­ed the im­por­tance of re­gion­al de­vel­op­ment. “Projects must not be con­cen­trat­ed in Port-of-Spain alone. To tru­ly stim­u­late growth, we need strate­gic in­vest­ment across all re­gions. Roads, hous­ing, schools, and in­dus­tri­al hubs out­side the cap­i­tal are es­sen­tial to broad-based eco­nom­ic ex­pan­sion.”

Both econ­o­mists al­so called for stronger pri­vate-sec­tor en­gage­ment. Ramkissoon said, “Stake­hold­ers—from busi­ness lead­ers to pro­fes­sion­als and com­mu­ni­ty or­gan­i­sa­tions—must have a voice. Pub­lic buy-in is es­sen­tial if the plan is to work. Top-down plan­ning with­out con­sul­ta­tion has failed us in the past.”

Ar­joon added that fi­nan­cial plan­ning must be ro­bust. “We can­not re­ly sole­ly on gov­ern­ment cof­fers. A blend of fi­nanc­ing op­tions, in­clud­ing PPPs and in­vest­ment funds, will cre­ate flex­i­bil­i­ty and at­tract in­vestors will­ing to com­mit for the long term. Rev­enue mod­els must be clear, trans­par­ent, and sus­tain­able.”

Ramkissoon warned that struc­tur­al weak­ness­es must be ad­dressed. “We have to learn from pre­vi­ous plans that stalled. Weak in­sti­tu­tions, bu­reau­crat­ic bot­tle­necks, and un­clear lines of re­spon­si­bil­i­ty have held us back for decades. Fix­ing these is more im­por­tant than sim­ply launch­ing new projects.”

He em­pha­sised the need for over­sight and eval­u­a­tion mech­a­nisms. “Every ma­jor project should have de­fined mile­stones and trans­par­ent re­port­ing. Suc­cess should be mea­sured not by an­nounce­ments but by ac­tu­al out­comes: jobs cre­at­ed, in­vest­ment at­tract­ed, and eco­nom­ic di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion achieved.”

Ar­joon al­so stressed long-term ca­pac­i­ty build­ing. “We must de­vel­op skills and lead­er­ship at all lev­els to sus­tain these projects. In­fra­struc­ture is on­ly part of the so­lu­tion; hu­man cap­i­tal and gov­er­nance struc­tures are equal­ly cru­cial.”

Both econ­o­mists agreed that while the blue­print is a pos­i­tive start­ing point, the coun­try faces tough choic­es. “We can­not af­ford in­cre­men­tal, half-mea­sures,” Ramkissoon said. “If this plan is to suc­ceed, the gov­ern­ment must act de­ci­sive­ly on reg­u­la­tion, in­vest­ment fa­cil­i­ta­tion, and pub­lic en­gage­ment.”

Ar­joon not­ed that the blue­print has the po­ten­tial to trans­form the econ­o­my, but on­ly if the vi­sion is matched by dis­ci­plined ex­e­cu­tion, re­gion­al in­clu­siv­i­ty, and fi­nan­cial plan­ning that can with­stand po­lit­i­cal cy­cles. Any­thing less risks re­peat­ing past fail­ures.

The Prime Min­is­ter, dur­ing the launch, said T&T in­tends to mod­el its growth on na­tions such as Sin­ga­pore, Sau­di Ara­bia, the Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates, Bahrain, and Kuwait—coun­tries that once re­lied heav­i­ly on en­er­gy but suc­cess­ful­ly di­ver­si­fied their economies.

She added that re­cent dis­cus­sions with the Kuwait Crown Prince and Sau­di rep­re­sen­ta­tives in the Unit­ed States reaf­firmed that “T&T is open for busi­ness.” While the coun­try seeks to en­ter Latin and South Amer­i­can mar­kets, she em­pha­sised the im­por­tance of strength­en­ing ties with tra­di­tion­al trad­ing part­ners.