Seukeran bowls NAR for duck

JUNIOR Trade and Industry Minister, Diane Seukeran sent the National Alliance for Reconstruction’s (NAR) political stumps flying when she declared the party was clueless about what Trinidad and Tobago was doing to foster greater regional unity within Caricom. At the NAR’s National Council meeting on Sunday, political leader Lennox Sankersingh claimed TT accepted the 2007 World Cup Cricket’s brown package because it was trying to bribe other Caricom nations to support its bid for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) Secretariat and the FTAA would never become a reality.

Addressing yesterday’s launch of the Caribbean Consulting Group (CCG) Ltd at the Cascadia Hotel in St Ann’s, Seukeran declared: “One wonders about the limitation of mind that could not see beyond the evident and look further into the process that must evolve.” Referring to earlier statements by Prime Minister Patrick Manning on the award of the brown package to TT, the Minister explained that regional integration would only be achieved once TT’s progress and development as a nation redounds to the benefits of all its neighbours. “We must create partners with similar levels of development. Partners who are capable of creating the single economic space — that is one of the promises of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) that began with the Treaty of Chaguaramas. The single economic space that is required for the sustainability of each island in the Caribbean,” she said.

Manning recently indicated that TT, Barbados and Jamaica will implement the CSME in January 2005. The Minister said whatever the debate on the FTAA, Government recognised that it was imperative to open up the local economy. In that context, Seukeran said the establishment of the CCG was timely because “perhaps the region’s real competitive advantage can be its ability to generate new leading edge ideas.” “We must invest in the development of ‘thinkers’ who specialise in concepts. The environment has to be created where there is ‘continual innovation’ and where ‘world standards are set.’ This is the environment in which growth resides, from which is exported knowledge and knowledge-based industries. This is where the competitive edge lies,” she declared.

The Minister revealed that out of a total of US$1 billion approved annually by international financing institutions for projects carried out in the Caribbean, only US$50 million  is paid for consulting services and of that amount, only US$6.5 million is earned by indigenous consulting firms “largely because they do not have the critical mass of human resource and the financial strength to compete with international firms.” Seukeran said she was pleased to know that the CCG will compete directly with international consulting firms in the Caribbean and not with its associate consultants or other traditional Caribbean consultants. Noting the energy sector’s limited capacity to address TT’s structural unemployment problem over the long term, Seukeran said Government’s economic diversification process viewed the services sector as critical to TT’s overall development because it accounts for 65 percent of the Gross Domestic Product, employs over 60 percent of the labour force and brings serious social benefits.