Diversification needs action

The experts had predicted that this will be like this for a while judging from the state of the world economy and we have no other information to doubt what they are saying. Diversification is like a road march now in TT — everyone is repeating this from the politicians down to the man on the street.

Yet it remains there.

Plenty talk and ideas but with little action. Our country has what it takes to diversify without just looking at oil products but shifting into other areas.

TT is blessed in the area of agriculture.

We can grow also any type of ground produce: cassava, yam, eddoes and a host of others.

Vegetables also grow in abundance including: tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, pimentos etc and fruits. This is one area that we can capitalise in diversifying the economy. A second area is arts and craft, our country has people with talent when it comes to creativity and not just at Carnival time but throughout the year. We are filled with diverse cultures which lend itself to our creativity.

A beautiful example of this was seen once again at the Savannah on Emancipation Day. It is time that we find a permanent market to export our arts and craft and find ways and mean to get investors here for this market.

Thirdly, something we keep stressing on which is tourism but there is still work to be done to raise our standard.

Our beaches need to come up to a new level of excellence, Maracas Bay should be heading the list with other bathing spots around the country and aggressive advertisement is necessary.

There are countries right in our region which are actually surviving on tourism as their main source of revenue and that speaks volumes.

We must be willing to spend money in order to make money.

Another area where TT can expand in the light of diversification is the manufacturing industry, textile, garment and foot wear, wood and related products, chemical etc.

The fact remains that there is great potential to diversify but it must be a joint effort if real success will emerge. I see three major contributors: leaders, the business sector and labour working together to achieve the desired result.

Arnold Gopeesingh