President of the T&T Manufacturers’ Association (TTMA) Dr Rolph Balgobin says the institutional environment for exporting goods is stacked against local manufacturers making the process of exporting more difficult.
He said there have been instances where goods arrived at their ports of destination without export certification. He warned that this could impact on T&T’s reputation as it gives the impression that the country does not know how to conduct business.
Balgobin said it would be difficult to get small and medium manufacturers interested in exporting when the environment is so hostile.
Speaking during the question and answer session at a seminar the future of the manufacturing sector Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business, Mount Hope, on Thursday, Balgobin also appealed for more support of locally manufactured products. That way, he explained consumers will be supporting businesses who are employing people in this country and are paying NIS and tax in T&T.
“When you pick up something else from somewhere else you are still supporting, to some extent, some employment but you are by and large supporting a value chain that does not reside here.”
Balgobin said TTMA members who export have a higher degree of certification compared to manufacturers in other jurisdictions that export to this country.
“When we manufacture and we export we have to meet and exceed global standards. The problem is that the geographies that we are exporting to have erected a whole lot of tariff barriers and they are very sophisticated about that,” he said.
The TTMA president said: “Manufacturers in T&T face global competition here every day. There is no protection. Our institutional framework can’t even issue export certificates on time.”
The time to act is now, he said, adding that there is need to put in place people who can action what manufacturers need to increase exports.
“If we partner with the knowledge generating agencies in the society to produce a cadre of individuals who can act, then we don’t just talk about things and invent reasons for why things are not happening.”
Balgobin said the claim that T&T’s private sector are risk averse is not true as there is no captain of industry who would not invest in an entrepreneurial venture. Prof Miguel Carrillo, executive director of the Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business, said the school, TTMA and University of Miami had partnered to introduce an International MBA with Advanced Certificate in Manufacturing Management.
He also announced that a manufacturing index would be launched next month to provide a clear picture in figures of what the sector looks like and ways it can be improved. He said the index will not duplicate the efforts of the Central Statistical Office.