Trade and Industry Minister Dr Keith Rowley, left, in conversation with Jerry Brooks, chief operating officer of the ANSA Mc Al Group of Companies, centre, and Anthony Sabga, chairman emeritus of the ANSA Mc Al Group of Companies. Photo: Karla Ramoo

By Raphael John Lall

Trade and Industry Minister Dr Keith Rowley yesterday said that for T&T to be competitive, the country must focus on developing its human resource and not just physical resources.

Rowley made the comment yesterday, while delivering the feature address at the first installment of ANSA McAL’s 2008 Distinguished Lecture Series at the Group’s head office, Tatil Building, Maraval Road, St Clair.

“At the end of the day, it comes down to what people do with themselves and for themselves. That is the competitive advantage,” Rowley said.

“Its not about having oil and gas because I could name a few countries that have that. It’s not having iron and steel, it’s not even about having banks because if you have banks and you don’t have depositors, you don’t have investors, you don’t have anything,” Rowley said.

He said the developed countries in the world are not necessarily the ones with natural resources but those who utilise their human resource.

“The successful countries of the world are the ones whose people are successfully organised to make the best of their human potential. Once you take that position, wherever you are located in the world, you can then leverage that advantage,” he said.

He said that citizens of this country have their priorities in the wrong place.

“We have loans available to us to buy Carnival costumes but you don’t have one share in the Unit Trust. In that kind of environment, you have no competitive advantage there,” Rowley said.

Rowley said despite this, T&T does have some level of competitive advantage.

“Over the years, we have maintained a very positive trade balance with fellow Caricom members. Steadily rising from $5.2 billion in 2000 to $14.1 billion in 2006—that’s the trade balance we have with our Caricom neighbours,” he said.

“We do have a competitive advantage—a very significant one—otherwise we couldn’t have been achieving those performances,” he said.