TTMA IN THE NEWS
Tricia Coosal: TTMA to double exports despite pandemic
In spite of the unforeseen challenges in the last couple of years, the TT Manufacturers’ Association (TTMA) said it still intends to double the value of export to $7 billion by 2025. The organisation's president Tricia Coosal was speaking at the TTMA’s eighth annual president’s dinner and awards ceremony at Hyatt Regency in Port of Spain, on Tuesday evening. Coosal said the objective was being carried out in tandem with the Ministry of Trade and Industry and Export TT, and while it was an ambitious goal, it was also an achievable one. Read more here
Guyana president: Collaborative approach needed to achieve regional food security
Guyana’s President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali has called on Caricom to get serious with its manufacturing and agriculture sector. In a virtual address at the Trinidad and Tobago’s Manufacturing (TTMA) president’s dinner and awards ceremony at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Port of Spain on Tuesday evening, he said there were many gains and opportunities from having strong collaborations and regional integration through intraregional trade and policy co-ordination. Ali said it was time for a serious strategic plan since the covid19 pandemic and heightened risks of climate change have made the region more vulnerable. Read more here
Tackle regional trade barriers
President of Guyana, Irfaan Ali, called on the private sector in the Caribbean to collaborate to remove the barriers to trade that are impeding the development of regional economies. Addressing the Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers Association (TTMA) President’s Dinner and Awards function by video conference, he said he would share a document with the association that deals with the barriers to trade in the Caricom, on a country-by-country basis. “I hope that by sharing this, your association would partner with associations across Caricom in raising your voices, enjoining a collective effort for the removal of these barriers to trade,” said Ali. Read more here
Guyana, Trinidad must ‘marry’ competitive advantage to create opportunities
President Dr. Irfaan Ali has said that Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago should ‘marry’ their competitive advantage in developing industries to create opportunities for both countries’ manufacturing and services sectors. The President delivered an enthralling address at the Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers’ Association (TTMA) President’s Dinner and Awards Ceremony on Tuesday evening, where he lobbied for members and stakeholders of the CARICOM region to see their economic space operating as one. Read more here
NEWS
Health Ministry: Trinidad and Tobago has capacity to test for omicron variant
Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said Trinidad and Tobago has the capacity to test for the omicron variant should it arrive in TT. He said this could be carried out through the University of the West Indies molecular biology lab, which has detected the other variants present in the country. Speaking at the ministry’s media conference on Wednesday, he said, once the variant is detected, UWI will notify the Health Ministry who would notify the public. He said it was likely that the variant was already present in TT but had not yet been detected. Read more here
Omicron travel bans harming global cooperation, WHO warns
The World Health Organization has said travel bans are having an impact on global cooperation against the Omicron coronavirus variant by delaying the sharing of laboratory samples from South Africa that could help research into the new strain. Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead on COVID-19, said that South African researchers have been keen to share information, data, and samples, but that travel bans “have caused some challenges for those samples to actually be shipped out of the country”. Scientists have been scrambling to learn more about the effects of the Omicron variant, first detected in South Africa last week. It has now been reported in at least 24 countries. Read more here
POLITICS
Imbert: Big data can help fight covid19
Big data can help Government's efforts to curb the spread of covid19 in Trinidad and Tobago and provide relief to those most in need. Finance Minister Colm Imbert made these comments when he spoke at the second day of virtual the UN-TT Big Data Forum 2021 on Wednesday. Big data is defined as extremely large data sets that may be analysed computationally to reveal patterns, trends, and associations, especially relating to human behaviour and interactions. Read more here
Integrity Commission to discuss Saddam’s allegation against PM
The Integrity Commission will tomorrow discuss UNC MP Saddam Hosein’s allegation that Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley allegedly failed to file a declaration with the Integrity Commission on the purchase of a Tobago townhouse in 2019. This was confirmed by the commission yesterday. The T&T Guardian was informed that the matter had “definitely” been added to the commission’s agenda for its normal meeting tomorrow. However, the matter hadn’t been before the commission, it was confirmed. Hosein spoke on the issue at Monday’s UNC Virtual Forum. He detailed the “files” which the UNC had on Rowley, Tobago businessman Allan Warner and others. Read more here
BUSINESS
Grande Riviere Chocolate Company aims for regional market
The Grande Rivíere community is internationally renowned as a turtle watching destination. Over the years, hundreds of tourists have flocked to rural northeastern village to witness the natural phenomena of turtles, including the endangered leatherbacks, laying their eggs on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. A few months later even more visitors return to see the tiny hatchlings off on their new adventure. Read more here
NFM facing pressure as wheat and other grain prices escalate
With soaring wheat prices, signalling more food inflation world-wide, Ian Mitchell Chief Executive Officer at the National Flour Mills (NFM) says the company may have no choice but to review prices if current trends continue. NFM products include flour, rice, animal feed, and pet food. However, the company emphasised that as wheat prices continue to increase, it will continue to do everything within its control to keep its processing costs down. Read more here
REGIONAL
GECOM narrows list down to Harrow, Persaud for CEO position
The race to name Guyana’s next Chief Elections Officer (CEO) was narrowed down to two candidates as Vishnu Persaud and Leslie Harrow, both with experience in electoral bodies, have been named as the final two top candidates by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) following its meeting last Wednesday. GECOM Commissioner Sase Gunraj told the Guyana Chronicle yesterday that the interviews will be done on Monday. Persaud and Harrow have survived a revision by the statutory body of an initial shortlist of six candidates. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
Covid: South Africa new cases double in 24 hours as Omicron spreads
Health officials say the new coronavirus variant Omicron has now become dominant in South Africa and is driving a sharp increase in new infections. Some 8,500 new Covid infections were registered in the latest daily figures. That is almost double the 4,300 cases confirmed the previous day. Omicron has now been detected in at least 24 countries around the world, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). South Africa was the first country to detect the highly mutated new variant. Its National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) has said more than 70% of all the virus genomes it sequenced last month have been of the new variant. Read more here
2nd December 2021