Mar 2016 Financial News

Sabga: TT awaits Mid-Year Review

Mar 24, 2016

WHILE both the country and the Ansa McAl Group of Companies have had to endure “hard times” recently, Group chairman A Norman Sabga is expressing optimism ahead of the Mid-Year Review which Finance Minister Colm Imbert will present in the House of Representatives on April 8.

In expressing his optimism, Sabga declared that this country’s watchwords of “Discipline, Tolerance and Production” were more relevant today than ever and now was the time for all citizens to unite to guide this country out of the troubled economic waters it is currently in.

Noting the Group will celebrate 135 years in business this year and will not be one of those companies which are “here today and gone tomorrow,” Sabga said his heart went out to the workers affected by the closure of the Arcelor Mittal steel plant in Point Lisas. Admitting that the Group does not always get the equation right with the unions representing workers in the various companies within its fold, Sabga said there were things which both the Group and the unions needed to change to obtain a win-win scenario for all.

In presenting the Group’s 2015 Year End Audited Financial Results yesterday at the Tatil Building, Sabga said, “I think the whole country is waiting for the new budget (Mid Year Review) next month to see what is going to be presented.” Agreeing with the contents of the latest International Monetary Fund (IMF) Article IV report on Trinidad and Tobago, Sabga said, “They said we’re not bankrupt. I agree. I don’t think we’re a charity case. I think this country has a lot of resources. Our human capital is great. We have many months of cover, in terms of imports. Together we are going to do great things.” In its report, the IMF praised the new People’s National Movement (PNM) administration for taking “difficult but necessary steps in the face of sharply lower energy revenues,” such as “widening the VAT base, reducing fuel subsidies, reducing the number of Ministries with a view to streamlining the civil service, as well as instituting spending cuts.” Saying “only a madman” would have predicted global oil prices would have reached the levels they have today, Sabga said the reality facing the country is, “we are all in this ship and the ship is taking on water.” Stressing that “nobody is going to help us, we have to help ourselves,” Sabga declared the Ansa McAl Group has “bucket and oars in hand” and will do what it can to set this country back on track. Saying there is still a lot of opportunity in TT and it was born in “hard times,” Sabga said it was the Group’s pride in this country which led it to successfully purchase an Order of the Republic of TT (ORTT) medal which was being sold on eBay.

Reflecting on a television interview he saw with one of the former workers at the Arcelor Mittal plant, Sabga remarked, “How you are going to mind your family. Keep the roof over their heads, is something I hope to God, that we will never find ourselves in.” He observed, “We are a young fledgling nation and multinationals will have no loyalty as to where they move their capital and their manufacturing.” Declaring that Ansa McAl wants to be “here for a lot longer than the next 135 years,” Sabga stated, “ We are a Caribbean company. This is where we have our investment.”

Source:
By Clint Chan Tack
Newsday
Thursday March 24, 2016

http://www.newsday.co.tt/sport/0,225704.html