Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has called on businessmen to become the driving force behind the Trinidad and Tobago economy. This she said as she extended an open invitation to all businessmen to join hands with the government to make Trinidad and Tobago “the gateway to the Americas.” Persad-Bissessar made this statement as she delivered the feature address at the formal launch of the Siparia Chamber of Commerce, at PowerGen, Syne Village, Penal. She called on businessmen present to “partner with the government, as others have been doing, because the only way forward for us now is for the private sector to be the driver of the economy.” The government, she said, would work with the private sector in that drive. The government’s role, she explained, would be that “of a facilitator that will facilitate the private sector.”
The prime minister said it was time that the private sector should power the economy. “For too long, the state has been the main engine behind driving the economy, and it has not worked; and it will not work, because the role of a government is not that of the private sector,” she said. (Excerpt from Trinidad & Tobago Guardian)
