Competition slide a bad sign

When combined together, it is a stain that we can do without.

The Report has pointed to a marked slide in Trinidad and Tobago’s competitiveness position worldwide.

Last year, this country was listed at 59th on the business competitiveness index of the Global Competitiveness Report out of 104 nations surveyed. This year with 13 countries added to the index, Trinidad and Tobago slid to 65th. Slippage was recorded as well in the Growth Competitiveness Index, with Trinidad and Tobago which had been ranked 51st last year, ranked this year at 60th.

It is not something to be proud as this report would have been published across the globe.

The argument advanced by Trade and Industry Minister, Ken Valley, that the country’s fall in the rankings had been due to the increase in the number of countries in each index. It was and still is a ridiculous statement, laughable even.

This did not find favour with TTMA President, Paul Quesnel, who insisted that this alone could not have been the reason for the slide.

Of interest, is that Valley had expressed the view publicly last week that the ruling party could possibly lose the next general election, constitutionally due in 2007 if it did not address the crime problem.

Persons wishing to do business with Trinidad and Tobago, for example importers, could be turned off if their perception of this country was one of increasing crime and a bureaucracy where some of the senior public officials in sensitive positions were not only inefficient but inclined to favouritism.

The result could be not only less income for small manufacturers hurt by the backlash of this image of Trinidad and Tobago, but a possible lay off of workers and the added minus of less corporation tax as well as less money being turned around within the economy.

Quesnel’s concern about TT’s decline in global competitiveness may appear to some observers to be pessimistic but the reality is that competitiveness is what separates the sheep from the goat.

You can bank on that. While we may be an energy titan, it counts for nothing if we are perceived to be sluggish in the global arena.

In a global village, it is what keep other countries ahead in the game. It might be good idea to find out what other countries have done and emulate them. We need to iron out our chinks if we are to get a better rating because if things continue as they are, we might just find ourselves slipping again.

But not only relevant individuals or groups in the outside world would be encouraged by positive action demonstrating that something is being done to drastically reduce existing uncomfortable crime levels.

Citizens and residents of Trinidad and Tobago would also be heartened.

The implications for Trinidad and Tobago contained in the World Economic Forum’s 2005-2006 Global Competitiveness Report can not and must not be ignored.