New Chamber President slams ‘Vision 2020’

NEWLY installed president of the South Trinidad Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Dr Jim Lee Young, has said that Government’s 2020 vision is little more than a “pie in the sky.”

Lee Young, who assumed the presidency of the powerful southern business organisation, lamented that after 40-odd years of Independence, the country was still plagued by “high unemployment, rising crime, no effective social security system and a backward health care system.” The tough talking businessman also slammed Government’s inability to revise the tax regime for on-shore oil production saying the reasons given were “not acceptable.” “Only through commerce and business can we reach developed-nation status, and the State must realise that it is not the engine of growth or national development. It is the businesses. They are just the drivers,” he said. Lee Young is the general manager of Venture Production Limited, and was the Chamber’s vice-president of energy under outgoing president, Wayne Moze.