Staking TT’s claim
Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s forecast that the agreement signed last week between the National Energy Corporation (NEC) and Indian corporate giant, Essar, for setting up of an iron and steel complex at Point Lisas, would help this country become an industrial giant within the western hemisphere, lacks an important ingredient. What is of critical importance is not merely the setting up of the complex which will comprise four plants and employ thousands of temporary and permanent workers but rather the safeguarding of this country’s long-term interests through substantial shareholding involvement in the planned enterprise. There is no hint that it will be applied in this case save at the level of natural gas, employed in the project, as equity. It is not enough in the 21st century for any foreign interests to come here and embark on massive investment projects. For while we welcome new industries and the additional employment — permanent and temporary — and contribution to Government revenues they bring, this should be augmented both by domestic shareholder dividends and a fair measure of boardroom control. Too often in the past, we have not been able to reap the optimum benefits from foreign companies operating. To date the non-existence of a firm policy position of domestic capital and/or Government involvement has resulted over the years in an appreciable loss of revenue to Trinidad and Tobago. Because of this we are putting forward, as we have done on occasion in the past, local boardroom control, or at least a high level of boardroom involvement as an across-the-board policy. If this is adopted, there is the possibility that a considerable share of the profits earned will be able to be ploughed into other industries. As we have said before, natural gas and crude oil are wasting assets and will not last forever. The emphasis today should be the moving away from production of commodities for export to seeking to optimise returns on these. We can do this by adopting the Singaporean model of domestic economic involvement in foreign companies and ensure for ourselves a more balanced economy. We should concern ourselves less with the short-term benefits of temporary employment or the restricted benefits of corporation and personal income taxes and concentrate more on reaping a substantial portion of the profit margins and ploughing these back into domestic investments. It might hasten Prime Minister Manning’s forecast of Trinidad and Tobago as an industrial giant within the western hemisphere.
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"Staking TT’s claim"