Aug 2005 Financial News

‘Economy under control’

Aug 24, 2005

RBTT’s group chief operating officer Suresh Sookoo recently warned that the economy was under stress.

Enill acknowledged that if the many projects in the government construction programme get going simultaneously it could lead to over-heating of the economy and inflationary pressures.

He said: “I believe that it is an issue of timing. We will have to be careful as to how we time the entry of projects into the market and that is what we have been doing.”

The Manning administration has announced that it will be embarking on a massive infrastructure programme which includes highway construction, the Interchange project, the Waterfront development and several other construction projects.

With the formation of new state agencies the Manning administration is hoping to increase its capacity to execute its programmes.

Enill said government would not start the projects unless it had the capacity to so do.

He said: “The fact is there is a shortage of skills at all levels and when we talk about importing labour, it is in an effort to supply these skill sets.”

The Minister in the Ministry of Finance added: “For a long time we have known that the National Housing Authority has been using Jamaican engineers in the construction programme with great success so, in a lot of cases, based on where the unemployment level is, we have to go outside of the country for people.”

The Minister pointed out that even though the country had not achieved full employment, there were certain skill sets which were not available in sufficient quantities in certain communities.

“In Port-of-Spain, we need climbers for some of the construction work that we are doing but, unfortunately, I have been told that in areas like Laventille that skill is not available in sufficient quantities.” Enill told the Guardian.

Curtis Williams
The Trinidad Guardian
Wednesday, 24th August, 2005
http://www.guardian.co.tt/business1.html