Interesting
Govt begins talks to reopen the economyDonstan Bonn May 26, 2021 Updated 14 hrs ago
Minister of Energy and Energy Industries, Stuart Young said the Government is open to the idea of the reopening of Trinidad and Tobago’s economy but on a phased basis.
Young made the declaration during a press conference on Wednesday, immediately following a meeting of a ministerial committee, which he chaired, and representatives of various local business organization.
“We have been managing this pandemic now for well over a year. There have been previous roll backs, previous move forward, and you’ll would recall that last year, April, May, there was a phased opening. We had a phase 1, phase 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. And as it goes forward we’re going to be using a similar template but we’re open to discussing because a lot has changed, there are other things that have come to the table now for us to consider when we’re working this out.”
He said the committee will sit down with the Ministry of Health as they began working out how they’re going to reopen the economy but reopen it in a safe manner.
Members of the ministerial committee included Trade Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon, Works and Transport Minister, Rohan Sinanan, Sport Minister Shamfa Cudjoe, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh, and Randall Mitchell, Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts.
Among the business organisations present at the meeting were, the Tobago Division of the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers Association (TTMA), The American Chamber of Commerce Trinidad and Tobago (AMCHAM), Confederation of Regional Business Chambers, Downtown Owners and Merchant Association (DOMA) and Supermarket Association of Trinidad and Tobago (SATT).
Young said the Government’s position has been and continues to be that they are willing to listen.
“Government is listening. Government listened, and what we told the members of the business community is what we’re looking at is a phased reopening of our economy. Of course, any phased reopening has to take in place, and the main determining factor is going to be the public health and safety of our citizens of Trinidad and Tobago, as it has always been since we began managing this pandemic which started in January of last year. So that continues to be the Government’s commitment.”
Noting that there were very open discussions with a number of matters being place on the table, Young said one of the main takeaways was the Government asking all the business representatives to canvass the views, canvass the options, and canvass the different solution they seek going forward, and to send it in writing to the ministerial committee.
He said one of the commitments the Government asked for is the help of the business community in addressing any vaccine hesitancy that there may be out there because they’re finding as they go forward with the vaccination programme, even though persons talk about a desire to be vaccinated there is still unfortunately a lot of vaccination hesitancy.“Another interesting point that came up is the business sector in particular under AMCHAM and the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Commerce and Industry as well as the Downtown Owners Merchant Association, they were advocating to us today any further restrictions that are needed to be put in place by the Government, is better to take a bitter medicine now and hopefully have the results sooner rather than later.
“We listened. Our purpose there today was to listen. There was absolutely nothing that was shot down and we’re waiting to get all of the representations and more to us in writing for further consideration. I’m certain that they will talk about that, they will prepare to take more difficult measures, more restrictive measures at this stage. The Government has made no decisions,” Young said.
He said another item discussed was the extension of the lockdown measure.
“The date of July 7, is the date that is put on the current public health regulations, which are really to do with mandatory mask wearing, management of our borders, and other things that are under the public health regulations as separate from the state of emergency regulations.
“I’d like to take this opportunity to make an important point that the July 7 date is not any drop dead date, as the Government has shown over the management in the past year-and-a-half, we are prepared to amend our regulations as the public health experts advised us to do in that meeting with the Prime Minister, Minister of Health, Minister of National Security and the health experts. Whenever we meet, we’re always prepared to take onboard whatever suggestions are made and to amend our regulations, so there’s no need for a fear that everything is going to remain in a closed state until the July 7. It really depends on how we see the numbers going and the management of the Covid spread. And that is what guides us, and we have shown time and time again, both the state of emergency and emergency regulations as well as the public health regulations can be amended as the Government deems fit, any way that we deem fit over time. I think the business community appreciated that assurance from us.
Stating that right now they continue to monitor the numbers, Young noted that one of the things discussed is one of the ways that is accepted, which is the science, to bring down the number of positive cases on a daily basis, and therefore the number of deaths is reason to restrict and limit the movement of persons, which is why the county was placed in a state of emergency in the first place.
“There was a lot of conversation about the vaccination and persons being permitted to travel abroad to get vaccinated and come back. As I said, it might be too premature to make a decision on that now but it is under consideration. The Government will take advice with respect to that, that is a policy decision and right now I think because of where we are, that is a premature decision to be made but it is certainly something that will be given active consideration.”
He said another suggestion was to increase the curfew hours, making it 6am to 6pm but the Supermarket Association and others agreed with the Government that the current position is that you don’t want to shorten your hours.
“If you shorten your hours to 6pm, it means that groceries and pharmacies will have to close at 4pm to allow their workers to get safely home.
“And then what that does is it pushes a rush and a congregation of persons. But again, today’s meeting by the ministers led by myself, wasn’t for us to get into any decision making. It was for us to listen, to listen to potential solutions, difficulties, which is what we did, and in particular what are the options going forward as we begin to look at, hopefully, a reopening of our economy on a phased basis.”
Young said he was very happy and very encouraged by the tone of the meeting, and the fact that they were able to discuss the topic of vaccination, which was raised by everyone.
“We continue to give the commitment, the Government is doing everything, everything it legally, ethically and possibly can to get a consistent supply of vaccinations to Trinidad and Tobago. That is ongoing, you’ll are seeing that programme continue. The Minister of Health and his personnel will continue to give us updates on that.”
He said having listened to the smaller businesses and those from the confederation talk about the SMEs and the difficulties they are facing, he wants to give the reassurance that the Government is very much aware of how frustrated persons may be, how difficult it may be for persons in the business community, the workers in the business community.
“We are concerned about our vulnerable persons who may have to stay at home right now, where they’re not able to work throughout their various work places. These are all part of the basket of considerations that the Government is taking on board. The conversations we may need to go and have with those leaders in the financial sector and how they may be able to assist the smaller businesses.
Young also noted that persons were asking for predictability and for consistency, but they’ve learned that the one thing the world has learned is there is absolutely no guaranteed predictability in the management of Covid.
“We’re seeing that take place even in some of the countries who have access to all of the vaccines. We had spent some time talking about that, you would see for example the United States, hopefully by now it’s about 40 per cent of their population have received total vaccination, about 60 but under 70 per cent, one shot. And we’re seeing how they are reacting to it, the same thing in the United Kingdom.
“And what we discussed as well, even in those jurisdictions that have vaccine availability, the challenge is they’re having persons vaccinated but also at times the virus continues to spread with different variants, how they have to roll back certain measures, you would have seen in the United Kingdom within the recent past week.”
He said with the Government having gave the commitment that their engagement of the various sectors of society will not end with this meeting, another meeting may be held next week as the focus this week from a public health perspective is looking at the numbers.
“We’re looking at our case load, we’re looking at what is taking place, is the spread slowing down, are we heading in the right direction. And those are the type of information that would govern the decisions that we can make and the regulations that can be amended going forward one way or the other.”
Noting that right now there’s no decision by the Government, Young said: “I think in a nutshell, that is where we are at. We will continue to engage with them and the Government will continue to factor everything in when we meet with our health personnel and the Prime Minister and other members of the team and the Cabinet, to make the decisions to safely, that’s the important thing, to safely take us forward because we are still seeing some of the behaviours that lead to the spread of this awful virus.”
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