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THE PRESIDENT’S CORNER

SPEECH BY PRESIDENT OF AMCHAM T&T

MS. PATRICIA GHANY

AT THE

26TH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
(Friday, 28th June 2019)

SALUTATIONS

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you all for the trust and confidence placed in re-electing me as your President for another term. I am truly honoured to continue to contribute to the leadership and stewardship of AMCHAM T&T - the Pathway to the Americas.

We live in a complex and fast-changing environment which includes as many challenges as it does opportunities. In these uncertain times, we have to continue to represent our members and help you to do more business. We recognise that we have a key role to play a role in the attraction of investment into T&T. We also have a responsibility to make it easier to do business in T&T and more so, we have a responsibility to make our society better. At present, we are experiencing greater international complexity probably than we have seen since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Thus, there is the need for us to strategically plan how we move forward as a Chamber and continue to represent the needs of our members.

To do this, we at AMCHAM T&T need to be nimble and embrace change. The old ways of doing things may not be completely relevant to the current context. But to move an entire society into a different era, we need leadership and collaboration. Not just leadership from the government – although that is very important – but leadership from the business community, for we too have to change; leadership from the labour movement, for they too need to become relevant again; leadership from the professional class; leadership within communities and personally, we all have to take more individual responsibility for our society.

Two years ago, we called for more bi-partisanship in Parliament. We have seen glimmers of hope but not a real sustained effort at this. The modernization of our state cannot happen in the current hyper-politicized environment. We need to work together. We have to agree on national goals and collaborate. In this vein, to be truthful, both parties can do a better job. The uproar over the amendment to the FOIA was unnecessary.

If the Government had consulted beforehand, I’m sure they would have been congratulated for making the process of attaining public information simpler. But by not consulting, by not collaborating, what should have been something good became almost toxic.

The natural talent and adaptability of our people, our strategic geographical location, well-developed industrial sector, sophisticated financial sector and excellent trade and political relationships with countries such as the U.S. are all positives and unlikely to change. But the reality is that doing business in Trinidad & Tobago is becoming increasingly difficult.

Our counterparts in the Caribbean have recognised the need to shift the way they work and may soon surpass us and beings recognized as the commercial capital of the Caribbean. Jamaica for example, is reducing their debt and improving their ease of doing business, while we are doing the opposite. Guyana is investing in renewables looking to monetize hydrocarbons. While we, after more than 110 years of petroleum, are still scrambling to move toward alternative sources of energy. Barbados has taken our idea to initiate the process of exploring the possibility of making one of their airports a pre-clearance port, while we still cannot seem to even write a letter to the US to start that process.

We have to do better.

Taking advantage of our strong bilateral relationship with US is one way we can do better.

Although both countries have held different policy positions in some instances, we have always managed to have extremely strong and close ties. Evidence of this can be seen from the US side, in the high calibre of the US Ambassadors to Port of Spain. Amb. Roy Austin, Amb. Beatrice Welters and Amb. John Estrada, were all distinguished in their respective fields and had close relationships with the sitting presidents during their time. The same applies to our current Ambassador, Joseph Mondello. We should not take the US’s interest in having diplomatic representation in T&T with direct ties to the White House lightly.

Moreover, updated trade data from the US Department of Commerce this week shows trade in goods alone between our countries increased by 13%, or $650 million USD, bringing the two countries overall trade in goods to $5.8 Billion USD.  It is important that we do not forget that over 40% of all TT goods exports went to the United States, giving TT a trade surplus with the US.

By comparison, recently, figures touted by the Chinese Embassy and our Ministry of Foreign Affairs show a mere $730 USD million in trade between China and T&T, a figure which is less than 15% of US-TRINIDAD & TOBAGO trade in goods alone.

US companies such as Citi, Nu Iron, EOG, GE, Myerson, PALIG, Microsoft and so many more continue to provide jobs and are responsible corporate citizens. It is our hope that we can build on this and attract more US investment and build more T&T – US trade in the coming years.

In my first year in office, I laid out three major policy mandates for this Chamber and its membership. I pledged to strengthen our position as an organisation and catalyst, for the sustained economic development of Trinidad and Tobago, by AMCHAM T&T taking the lead in:

1.         Working towards Gender Parity

2.         Improving the Business Climate and Focussing on Investment

3.         And Moving towards Digital/Technological Transformation

On the issue of Gender Parity, I am happy to report that we are walking the talk. Two more competent, well-qualified women have joined our Board this year, bringing our ratio of women to men up to 7 : 9 or 44% on our Board. Not that we want to throw any of the great guys off the Board, but I encourage you to start thinking of additional, competent and qualified candidates who can be nominated next year and help us get up to at least 50 – 50. Our annual Women’s Leadership Event continues to grow and, our Women’s Leadership Mentorship Programme which we run in collaboration with the IDB, is in its second year. This year, our mentees have more than tripled and include several of our AMCHAM T&T employees. Also in collaboration with the IDB, about two months ago, we held a workshop on practical steps for improving gender parity in companies in Trinidad & Tobago.

We will continue to push on this issue to ensure that our organisations are safe and comfortable for all genders. This means addressing violence against women, rewarding equal pay for equal work, securing maternity leave packages, implementing day-care systems and enforcing zero-tolerance policies against sexual harassment and other workplace discrimination. We cannot do this alone however. Thus, I ask you our members and I challenge all individual businesses, to assess whether you have policies and systems to address these and, where you don’t, please consider implementing these policies. We are here to support you with this and can be called upon if needed.

The second point on our agenda was Improving the Business Climate and Focusing on Investment.

At the core of our mission though, is creating the conditions for businesses to grow, for we believe that by providing economic opportunity and economic freedom, we provide social mobility and greater opportunity for all.

Widespread institutional weakness and systemic corruption continue to affect the ease of doing business. The enforcement of contracts is a key weakness in our Global Competitiveness Ranking. It relates to the speed – or lack thereof – of the judicial system. We need to re-think the petty claims court and work harder at speeding up the judicial system not just for business but for all citizens. We applaud the work already being done on the latter through the option for the elimination of jury trials, for example, and encourage continued attention to be paid to the efficiency of the Judiciary.

We are eager for the full proclamation and operationalization of the Public Procurement Legislation. AMCHAM T&T believes the implementation of this law is a key tool in rooting out the ballooning corruption in our state sector, which contributes to crime and affects investment. We are optimistic that the Government will stay true to its word and stay on track to have this legislation proclaimed by the August 2019 promised deadline.

In this vein, we remain vociferous in our call for more to be done to tackle white collar crime. Such crimes are not victimless. In fact they are the most insidious as they “silently’ undermine systems and institutions making it harder and harder for law abiding citizens to get things done efficiently. We look forward to more prosecutions and convictions as a result of Suspicious Activity Reports compiled by the FIU.

A key tool in that will also be the operationalization of a Revenue Authority that is insulated from political interference. We need to widen the tax net so the burden does not inordinately fall on salaried workers and easy-to-target compliant companies. Detecting and prosecuting tax-evaders is also a key tool in fighting white collar crime including money laundering and the financing of illicit activity. Hopefully, a more efficient tax collection system, will also result in less delays in settling VAT and other tax refunds.

And while our focus is on white collar crime at AMCHAM T&T, we cannot ignore the effects of violent crime. We have to do better in tackling this scourge and protecting our vulnerable communities. That is why AMCHAM T&T is proud of the work we are doing – as little as it may be – in working with the Russel Latapy High School and the St James Police Youth Club. Our society is our responsibility and we will not shirk our responsibility.

Linked to the ease of doing business is the utilization of technology in the both the public and private sectors. The reality is that the time for excuses is long past. The government needs to ensure that wherever it interfaces with the public – collection of taxes, provision of passports or birth certificates, payment of court imposed fines, filing of customs declarations etc., there are payment gateways and online windows for full, seamless information transfer.

We strongly recommend the implementation of a single national unique identifier for the state to identify and interact with citizens. This will help streamline both government services and processes and provide an additional tool for the rooting out of corruption. And, it can be done quickly.

The digital transformation age is the very definition of competitiveness. Technology therefore needs to be embraced more by both the public and private sectors. The truth is that our private sector too is lagging behind in technological adaptation. If companies want to survive they are going to have to embrace this reality and recognize that emphasis on the role of human capital, innovation, resilience and agility, are not only the drivers but also the defining features of economic success in the 4th Industrial Revolution.

AMCHAM T&T also believes the Tech industry is a major pillar of a diversified economy. Furthermore, it is a critical component in creating high-value and exciting jobs, that encourage our young people to stay in Trinidad and Tobago even as they work and play in the global value chain. A tech industry can attract both local and foreign investment and increase competitiveness.

We are perfectly positioned to transform these opportunities into growth. AMCHAM T&T recently wrapped up our first annual Tech Hub Islands Summit (t.h.i.s.) conference in June 2019. This conference is the catalyst to take advantage of rapid technological shifts and advance our learnings, which will serve to bolster our market share, support our clients, and build strategic alliances and partnerships.

Finally, I want to raise what we consider to be one of the most pressing issues facing our country in the next few years. You all would have heard that our National Insurance System is underfunded. You all would have seen coverage of our most recent migrant crisis. So, let’s take a step back.

The reality is that our population is rapidly aging AND our labour force participation rate is falling. As such we need a comprehensive National Migration Policy and Strategy. We therefore urge the Government to establish an empowered team to consider this and offer our services to assist in this regard. Let me make it clear, we welcome the Government’s move to allow temporary residence and work permits to Venezuelan migrants – it’s a good thing – but we cannot treat that policy as isolated and we cannot wait another ten or eleven months to start thinking about what next. Population planning is key to our country’s long-term growth and stability.

What stands out about the year ahead of us involves our organization – our staff, our board and our members embracing change. The global business environment is changing every day, and we walk a delicate line between preserving some of the tried-and-true traditions and creating new ways to engage our business community that are significantly different than what we’ve done in the past.

In closing, let me take this moment to express my gratitude to our C.E.O. Nirad Tewarie for his loyalty and dutiful commitment he has shown to AMCHAM T&T. Nirad, you have shouldered the burden of the great vision that makes AMCHAM T&T the celebrated and illustrious organisation it has become today and for this, and  your strong and passionate leadership, I thank you.

To the staff at AMCHAM T&T, who work so tirelessly to building this organisation and maintaining contact and communication with our members so that we all closely connected and informed, I offer you my most heartfelt gratitude and appreciation.

To the board and committee members, please know your hard work, passion, commitment and dedication is truly and greatly valued. Because of your broad vision and eclectic mix of ideas and dreams, AMCHAM T&T has grown in membership and stature.

And, to our most loyal and faithful members, we would be nothing without you. I thank each and every one of you for the generous support and unflinching loyalty you have shown to this organisation over the past twenty-seven years.

Thank you for your time and attention and I look forward to working with and for you for another year!



Inaugural Address by Mitchell De Silva, President AMCHAM T&T

24TH Annual General Meeting

Thursday 1th May 2017

Salutations

I begin my inaugural speech to you by expressing sincere thanks and appreciation to the Board of Directors of AMCHAM T&T and you, the membership, for having the confidence in me to lead this organization.  That said it would be remiss of me to not also acknowledge the many persons and experiences within different organizations that have led me to this latest adventure.  My parents, wife, family, friends the Fatima Old Boys Association, colleagues across three financial institutions, Citi, Scotia and RBC, all of whom and which afforded me  guidance, encouragement and key learnings.  I owe you all a deep sense of gratitude and it is my hope that my performance in this office will fully reflect all that you have instilled in me.

Overview, objectives

I have been actively involved with AMCHAM T&T for quite a few years, with this being my second and longest stint.  Over the years I have seen the organization steadfastly represent you the membership on many different fronts, whether it be regional, hemispheric or domestic our voice has been raised and our presence  felt.  Testimony to that is evidenced by the fact that our very own former President Nicholas Galt, held the post of Chairman for our regional body, AACCLA, and our immediate Past President Ravi Suryadevara now serves on its Board.  I highlight this, not only out of pride and admiration for these distinguished gentlemen, but to emphasize the point that the lobby voice of this Chamber has a depth and breadth to it that few, if any, can lay claim to.  All of your past Presidents have been persons who excelled in their respective fields, where they served and in most instances continue to serve with distinction.

Priority 1 diversity

This brings me to what I view as one of my priorities as I assume the Presidency, as I look back at previous holders of this office, there appears to be only one instance where a woman was at the helm.  In keeping with one of the key goals of the United Nations on Sustainable Development, the organisation’s philosophy and indeed, my own personal beliefs, it is my hope that when I demit office that the Board and you the membership will see it fit to transition the leadership of this Chamber to one of the eminently qualified women who serve on our Board.  Like the Presidents of the past, the women on our Board are leaders in their respective fields and are as capable and competent as any to assume the Presidency. Forgive this seeming digression as it may seem odd to speak of leaving office when I have just assumed it, but I see this as a priority and a natural fit in the context of the Women in Leadership event that we have successfully hosted for a number of years.  AMCHAM T&T must be a standard bearer and an exemplar in evidencing the diversity we promote and while we have achieved same at a Board level the time has come for us to take the next step.

Priority 2- Continued advocacy

As I have highlighted above, we will continue to remain relevant in conversations that affect you the membership, that said, and as another critical priority for my time in office I intend to continue the heightened engagement with Government and critical stakeholders in our economy that characterized Ravi’s Presidency.  Our views must and will continue to be tethered to logic, sound judgement and reasoned objectivity.  It is only with these values will we remain credible in the eyes of those whom we seek to sway as we work on influencing how as a country we navigate these most turbulent times.

Successive credit downgrades, one firmly entrenched in junk status, rampant violent crime, an untenable Fx situation and a widening of the divide between labour and business together with multiple other threats to our country and wellbeing must be boldly tackled and remedied with urgency.   

AMCHAM T&T’s push, as part of the Private Sector / Civil Society Group’s initiative, for the operationalizing of Procurement legislation and the bringing into effect and staffing of the office of the Procurement Regulator is one of a series of critical steps that we believe assists in treating with some of the issues mentioned above. This legislation, once appropriately brought into force, has the potential to radically change the expenditure patterns of the State and significantly improve accountability and oversight on Public spend.    Achieving this objective should allow for more efficiency and transparency, thereby limiting instances of artificially inflated project costs and questionable disposal of State assets.

Indeed, the passage and implementation of adequate public procurement legislation is critical to reducing a significant portion of white collar crime.   

Our unfortunate reality today is that the surge in crime is evident at all levels, from corruption to widespread violence.  Talk of the death penalty and a need for swift justice and a reboot of our judicial and penal systems are spoken of daily.  The latter points are indeed needed, however seemingly absent from the national conversation is a focus on what brought us to this juncture and what is required to move us back from it.  If we agree the view of Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, in their book Freakonomics, we would have to concede that the solution to our current problems will not happen overnight.  In their analysis of crime riddled New York of the 1970s and 80s and its seeming return to sanity in the 1990s and early 2000s, they do not attribute the resurgence to then Mayor Rudy Giuliani, but rather to a series of policies and steps taken in the years and decades before that culminated in the significant reduction in crime levels and criminality.  Yes, the leadership at the time was in fact a major contributor to the improvements noted, but it was not solely their doing rather a collaborative effort that took years. We need this type of long term vision and planning in our country, the patience to persevere and the will to have seemingly small changes take root.  Let me be clear the need for immediate firm action is necessary, but more arrests and prosecutions will not stem the problem on their own, we need a more holistic approach to an issue that is out of control.

Clearly, the problems that confront us are many and our desire for rapid change and course correction is significant.   Years of seeming indifference, buoyed by unprecedented growth in our energy sector, as we all well know, masked the inefficiencies and shortcomings of our institutions, systems and tragically undermined our productivity as a people.  The entitlement mentality is pervasive across our society, not only at the level of labour, where a day’s pay is exchanged for three hours of work, but even in the very private sector that we hold in such high esteem. Far too often we as a sector cry out to the Government to solve our problems as opposed to creating the solutions on our own. A difficult task yes, impossible, no.  I know this point may be difficult to accept, but in this current crisis the Private Sector must take up the challenge to cede from the Government the position of being the main driver of our economy. Again, this will be incremental, as it is foolhardy to believe that we will become the main driver in the short term.  In the immediate term however, we must engage the Government in adopting and accepting that its main role in the economy is not that of actor, but rather facilitator. As President of AMCHAM T&T, I recommit the organisation to this process and I appeal to the Government to engage meaningfully as it is only through real collaboration that we can return our country to growth.

As I mentioned previously we see Procurement Legislation and its being brought into effect as an apt example of our efforts to get Government to embrace its role as facilitator.  Sadly, we have not achieved complete implementation of the legislation, nor is its roll out occurring as contemplated and advised by the civil society group, nevertheless we continue to press on multiple fronts to have this landmark piece of legislation enacted and operationalized in the best interest of all concerned.

Our efforts will not stop at Procurement as we intend to press the Government to adopt fiscal rules, as many countries have done, Grenada and Jamaica being two regional examples.  We see implementation of codified and legislated fiscal rules as a necessary step to follow from Procurement as the two will work in tandem.  One, broadly speaking, designed to ensure efficiency in expenditure and the other intended to preserve or one might say establish a strong correlation between what we spend and what we earn. Fiscal rules and Procurement are not a panacea for what ails us, but they form the basis for creating a more accountable and responsible form of Governance, not only at the political level but across the entire society. 

Priority 3- Enhanced relationship with labour

In the crisis that we face as country today, the already tense relationship between business and labour is more likely to deteriorate than it is to improve.  That is of course, if we both continue to wed ourselves to our seemingly entrenched positions.  In my view it is time to change how we engage with labour, as Barack Obama noted in his inaugural speech in 2008,

“…if you unclench your fist, we will extend our hand…”  that statement rings true on both sides.  If we are true to ourselves we will see that our fists, on key issues, are just as tightly clenched as we view labour’s on matters of importance to us.  The question that has vexed and plagued many before me, is how do we bridge the divide.   I recognize that  a degree of tension between the forces is necessary and a requisite for a healthy industrial relations climate,  but what I do believe and what I do foresee, is that to continue as is will only lead to a further fracturing of our society.

 Now is not a time for unyielding commitment to ideology but to find new ideology to fit our reality. I am not advocating that we abandon our core principles but that, as we discuss the future, we incorporate these into a shared sense of purpose for the benefit of all. We have no choice but to search for a better way. In this regard, it is my hope that the unions will see it fit to return National Tripartite Advisory Council and that Government Business and Labour come together on some key initiatives to drive our socio-economic recovery.

Closing summation

Assuming office in the year that marks AMCHAM T&T’s 25th anniversary as a Chamber, coming in after so many Presidents who have provided invaluable service to the Chamber and by extension to you the membership; at a juncture where our economy is delicately balanced on a razor’s edge; is daunting to say the least.  All that said and acknowledged I take up this challenge with full confidence in the capacity that has been built in the Chamber over those many years:

  • ·        our CEO and his staff who work tirelessly, with pride and dedication
  • ·        a Board that meets monthly and provides consistent guidance, direction and counsel
  • ·        an executive that is available engaged and committed and
  • ·         obviously you the membership, our reason for being and the inspiration for our efforts

All of these reasons clearly say to me that I am not alone, the support, guidance and counsel that all I have mentioned above will remain and I will rely on them to ensure that I execute on this critical mandate  in keeping with those that have gone before me.

In closing permit me to especially recognize our outgoing President, Ravi Suryadevara, those of you who would have had the privilege of interacting with Ravi I am sure, like me are the better for it.  Ravi, your commitment, passion and dedication to the Chamber and your values as an individual are not only worthy of praise but emulation; on behalf of the membership and the Board I thank you and more importantly, I salute you.

Dignitaries, members, Media, Ladies and Gentlemen, I thank you.



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