New AmCham TT president advises on forex allocations

“At the end of the day you have to decide what you want to have, a market driven economy or one that is directed by the state. When things are directed by an entity that’s not an actor in the system, distortion is created and you have to be very careful of this. But we do accept that there is a need to make some decisions, to make a change and frankly, some of our membership benefit from what the minister has done.” During his delivery of the Mid-Year Review on May 10, Finance Minister Colm Imbert said he had requested that the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago (CBTT) give priority to trade and manufacturing regarding access to foreign exchange.

“From our perspective,” De Silva said, “this direction of foreign exchange to three priorities, trade, education and health care (is) already happening.” “Clearly those are critical areas and fundamentally, it’s the CBTT’s injections, so it’s the country’s reserves and I assume it’s within the minister’s right to direct (the bank) but in a free market it’s not always best to do those kind of things...because it disrupts, it creates distortion.

As a business chamber, we are very much in favour of as free a system as can possibly exist.” De Silva was speaking with reporters following AmCham TT’s 2017 Annual General Meeting (AGM), held yesterday at Hilton Trinidad, Port-of- Spain.

Prior to his election to the post of president, De Silva served as AmCham TT vice-president for the period 2015 - 2017.