Business sector has long wishlist for 2026; Forex crisis still a big worry

GAIL ALEXAN­DER

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

gail.alexan­[email protected]

Busi­ness sec­tors are among T&T’s lifeblood and their fo­cus in 2026 is key to progress. Here’s what some groups project for the new year and what it con­veys about T&T’s land­scape and fu­ture—in­clud­ing the fact that there’s a loud cry for help from To­ba­go.

T&T Cham­ber of In­dus­try & Com­merce:

“Look­ing ahead to 2026 and be­yond, the T&T Cham­ber’s fo­cus will be on de­liv­er­ing de­ci­sive, busi­ness-led so­lu­tions that re­spond di­rect­ly to the re­al­i­ties fac­ing our mem­bers. Guid­ed by our 2026 to 2030 Strate­gic Plan, we’ll in­ten­si­fy our ad­vo­ca­cy and ap­plied busi­ness re­search to ad­dress the ris­ing cost of do­ing busi­ness, reg­u­la­to­ry in­ef­fi­cien­cies, and op­er­a­tional chal­lenges con­fronting mem­bers in an in­creas­ing­ly frag­ile eco­nom­ic en­vi­ron­ment.

“Our com­mit­ment is to re­main a trust­ed, in­flu­en­tial voice for busi­ness, pro­vid­ing prac­ti­cal sup­port, ca­pac­i­ty build­ing, in­formed ad­vo­ca­cy, and lead­er­ship as the pri­vate sec­tor nav­i­gates a com­plex and evolv­ing eco­nom­ic land­scape.

“Cen­tral to this agen­da is sus­tained en­gage­ment with pol­i­cy­mak­ers and key stake­hold­ers. We’ll con­tin­ue to work col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly to ad­vance co­op­er­a­tion, while en­sur­ing that our mem­bers’ per­spec­tives and da­ta dri­ven in­sights re­main at the fore­front of na­tion­al dis­cus­sions. Trinidad and To­ba­go is in a pe­ri­od of eco­nom­ic trans­for­ma­tion that re­quires open lines of com­mu­ni­ca­tion, shared vi­sion, and prac­ti­cal so­lu­tions.”

Greater San Fer­nan­do Area Cham­ber of Com­merce pres­i­dent Ki­ran Singh:

“For 2026, we’re cau­tious­ly op­ti­mistic for pos­i­tive de­vel­op­ments. The eco­nom­ic shocks we faced can be al­tered with new en­er­gy projects com­ing on stream. Small and medi­um en­ter­pris­es (SMEs) cit­ed in­ad­e­quate forex al­lo­ca­tions in 2025 among rea­sons for price in­creas­es and re­duced va­ri­ety for stock in trade. The econ­o­my was al­so neg­a­tive­ly af­fect­ed by re­duced avail­able en­er­gy prod­ucts and soft prices.

“The mat­ter of a more eq­ui­table forex dis­tri­b­u­tion sys­tem should be in­tro­duced in 2026. We un­der­stand the Cen­tral Bank in­ject­ed some forex be­fore Christ­mas. This would have as­sist­ed with im­me­di­ate stock im­ports. We await a work­able so­lu­tion for forex avail­abil­i­ty in 2026.

“The pri­vate sec­tor’s been in­vest­ing in some mea­sure in in­fra­struc­tur­al de­vel­op­ment, but na­tion­al wealth cre­ation re­quires more than that. With Gov­ern­ment’s Re­vi­tal­iza­tion Plan, an eco­nom­ic turn­around can be re­alised. This plan would re­quire sig­nif­i­cant lo­cal/for­eign in­vest­ment. Sev­er­al am­bi­tious projects, es­pe­cial­ly in non-en­er­gy sec­tors, were an­nounced, which have the po­ten­tial to gen­er­ate lo­cal/for­eign in­vest­ment and rev­enue.

“Re­open­ing of the (Petrotrin) re­fin­ery and San Fer­nan­do Wa­ter­front de­vel­op­ment may be crit­i­cal com­po­nents to start that mul­ti­pli­er ef­fect. Down­stream in­dus­tries, re­tail and food/bev­er­age sec­tors would get con­fi­dence to pre­pare for re­sult­ing com­mer­cial ac­tiv­i­ty.”

Ch­agua­nas Cham­ber pres­i­dent Bal­dath Ma­haraj:

“Our re­cent com­men­tary ad­dressed the pres­sures of tax ad­just­ments and port ef­fi­cien­cies. Our long-term vi­sion for 2026 fo­cus­es on main­ly in­fra­struc­ture, se­cu­ri­ty, dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion, and re­gion­al trade lead­er­ship.

“Forex con­tin­ues to com­pound busi­ness fore­cast­ing and prof­itabil­i­ty. We ex­pect that those in pow­er will pro­vide some fur­ther clar­i­ty on this mat­ter, as done by the Cen­tral Bank gov­er­nor re­cent­ly.

“On lo­cal in­fra­struc­ture, our pri­ma­ry fo­cus re­mains on safe­ty and traf­fic man­age­ment. Reg­u­lar con­ges­tion with­in the bor­ough acts as a hid­den tax on pro­duc­tiv­i­ty. For 2026, we’ll lob­by for con­struc­tion of two ad­di­tion­al over­pass­es, along with some oth­er cost-ef­fec­tive mea­sures to ease con­ges­tion from east to west of Ch­agua­nas. We’re work­ing close­ly with the TTPS to evolve their tem­po­rary Fes­tive Shield se­cu­ri­ty ini­tia­tives in­to a per­ma­nent sur­veil­lance net to en­sure that Cen­tral re­mains a safe, 24-hour com­mer­cial hub where busi­ness own­ers and shop­pers feel pro­tect­ed.

“The cham­ber’s com­mit­ted to the dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion of Cen­tral. In 2026, we aim to have com­pre­hen­sive pro­grammes to as­sist (SMEs) in in­te­grat­ing e-com­merce in­to their dai­ly op­er­a­tions. We’re po­si­tion­ing Ch­agua­nas as a Caribbean trade gate­way, ad­vo­cat­ing for In­di­an phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­nies to set pro­duc­tion in T&T with lo­cal part­ners since Trinidad has easy ac­cess to mar­kets in the Amer­i­c­as.”

T&T Man­u­fac­tur­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Dale Par­son:

“In 2026, TTMA will pri­ori­tise ex­port growth, SME de­vel­op­ment, in­fra­struc­ture projects and gov­ern­ment/man­u­fac­tur­ers’ col­lab­o­ra­tion to build on its re­cent re­silience amid eco­nom­ic and sup­ply chain chal­lenges.

“TTMA aims boost­ing non-en­er­gy ex­ports sig­nif­i­cant­ly to US$10.6 or 71% growth (on 2024) by 2030 through trade mis­sions, Ex­im­bank and Gov­ern­ment’s col­lab­o­ra­tion events like the Ju­ly 2026 Trade and In­vest­ment Con­ven­tion. A large part of TTMA’s ini­tia­tives in­clude SME’s pop-up show­cas­ing at TIC and in­ter­na­tion­al net­work­ing to turn SMEs in­to net ex­porters, re­duc­ing re­liance on im­ports and gov­ern­ment aid.​

“The first half of 2025 start­ed with de­cel­er­at­ed growth, how­ev­er, the sec­ond half showed in­creased non-en­er­gy ex­port growth ac­cel­er­a­tion to Cari­com and ex­tra re­gion­al­ly. Since COVID in 2020, T&T’s non-en­er­gy ex­ports were on an av­er­age/year growth path of 18 per cent year-on-year. This is sup­port­ed due to Ex­im­bank’s forex sup­port to fu­el raw ma­te­ri­als, the in­creased geo-po­lit­i­cal tar­iffs, Cari­com neigh­bours’ prob­lems with ex­tra-re­gion­al goods sourc­ing sup­ply, their lo­gis­ti­cal is­sues and price in­creas­es.

“In­creas­ing­ly now, Cari­com coun­tries are re­al­is­ing that great qual­i­ty prod­ucts can be sourced eas­i­er, faster, cheap­er in T&T than ex­tra-re­gion­al­ly. The aim is to con­tin­ue to fos­ter growth rate by en­sur­ing our ports, Cus­toms, sup­ply of raw ma­te­r­i­al and forex are un­in­ter­rupt­ed. This re­quires work­ing close­ly with rel­e­vant min­istries. TTMA’s al­so on an ex­tra-re­gion­al ex­port dri­ve re­gard­ing Chile, Ghana, UK and USA.”

Cry for help from To­ba­go

Much needs to be done in To­ba­go, ac­cord­ing to busi­ness groups there.

To­ba­go Di­vi­sion of T&T Cham­ber of In­dus­try & Com­merce pres­i­dent Cur­tis Williams:

“Ours is a call for en­abling growth. The past year has been chal­leng­ing for the wider busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty. Eco­nom­ic ac­tiv­i­ty re­mained large­ly slug­gish across most sec­tors, with no­table ex­cep­tions in fi­nan­cial ser­vices, re­al es­tate and new ve­hi­cle sales. For many small and medi­um-sized en­ter­pris­es (SMEs) in To­ba­go, op­er­at­ing con­di­tions re­mained tight and un­cer­tain.

“Look­ing at 2026, the To­ba­go Di­vi­sion is cau­tious­ly op­ti­mistic and looks for­ward to the de­vel­op­ment plans and pol­i­cy di­rec­tion to be out­lined by the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA). To­ba­go’s pri­vate sec­tor op­er­ates with­in a very small and unique eco­nom­ic space, fac­ing per­sis­tent con­straints such as lim­it­ed ac­cess to for­eign ex­change, land li­cens­ing chal­lenges and reg­u­la­to­ry de­lays that slow down busi­ness ac­tiv­i­ty and in­vest­ment.

“A key con­cern for the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty con­tin­ues to be cash flow pres­sure caused by de­lays in pay­ments to ser­vice providers and ven­dors, par­tic­u­lar­ly, late pay­ments by State en­ter­pris­es and pub­lic-sec­tor agen­cies pose se­ri­ous chal­lenges for To­ba­go’s SMEs. When busi­ness­es aren’t paid with­in the agreed con­trac­tu­al pe­ri­ods, it cre­ates anx­i­ety and fi­nan­cial strain, mak­ing it dif­fi­cult to meet pay­roll, set­tle sup­pli­er ac­counts and ho­n­our statu­to­ry oblig­a­tions such as tax­es and na­tion­al in­sur­ance con­tri­bu­tions.

“The cham­ber is there­fore call­ing on both the THA and the Cen­tral Gov­ern­ment to be ful­ly mind­ful of their oblig­a­tions when en­gag­ing pri­vate-sec­tor ser­vices. Time­ly pay­ment isn’t sim­ply an ad­min­is­tra­tive mat­ter—it’s es­sen­tial to busi­ness sur­vival, em­ploy­ee se­cu­ri­ty, and over­all eco­nom­ic sta­bil­i­ty in the is­land.

“While there have been calls for the pri­vate sec­tor to ‘raise its bar,’ this must be matched by an en­abling en­vi­ron­ment. In­ad­e­quate in­fra­struc­ture, lo­gis­tics chal­lenges, lim­it­ed ac­cess to af­ford­able fi­nanc­ing and pro­longed reg­u­la­to­ry process­es—par­tic­u­lar­ly in­volv­ing agen­cies such as WASA, Town and Coun­try Plan­ning, the Fire Ser­vice and the En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty—con­tin­ue to hin­der growth and in­no­va­tion.

“This di­vi­sion re­mains com­mit­ted to work­ing col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly with pub­lic-sec­tor part­ners to help build a more ro­bust, re­silient and com­pet­i­tive busi­ness sec­tor. With the right sup­port, time­ly pay­ments, im­proved in­fra­struc­ture and stream­lined reg­u­la­tion, To­ba­go’s pri­vate sec­tor can play its full role in dri­ving sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment for the is­land.”

To­ba­go Ho­tel & Tourism As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Regi­nald Mclean:

“The TH­TA, be­ing the largest pri­vate sec­tor or­gan­i­sa­tion in To­ba­go, is yet to se­cure a meet­ing with the Prime Min­is­ter. As much as di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion in­to tourism is the thrust, it’s not hap­pen­ing, as we’re see­ing a greater wedge be­ing placed in tourism.

“The US-Venezuela is­sue is caus­ing very many can­cel­la­tions through­out the ac­com­mo­da­tion sec­tor. Is Gov­ern­ment go­ing to bail out the ac­com­mo­da­tion sec­tor that’s be­ing se­vere­ly dis­ad­van­taged by three states of emer­gen­cies, the US-Venezuela cri­sis and high­er prices on every­thing? There’s been a hike in most food costs and elec­tric­i­ty.

“Nine months af­ter Gov­ern­ment took of­fice, the air­port ter­mi­nal re­mains un­opened. There are no dis­cus­sions yet on flights, air­lift or on civ­il avi­a­tion, Air­ports’ Au­thor­i­ty and the Port Au­thor­i­ty. The seabridge is a to­tal dis­as­ter. There’s no re­place­ment for the out­go­ing car­go ves­sel. Is it true the APT James isn’t back on the seabridge be­cause of non-pay­ment of dry­dock­ing fees? What about the miss­ing eight round trip flights on the do­mes­tic air­bridge, which ac­counts for ap­prox­i­mate­ly 550 dai­ly seats that are still un­avail­able?

“The 100% in­crease in al­co­hol cost makes T&T non-at­trac­tive and non-com­pet­i­tive with pack­ages, in­clud­ing all-in­clu­sive pack­ages. Many in the ac­com­mo­da­tion sec­tor have con­tracts that they are now los­ing mon­ey on. So, this was bad­ly thought of and ad­vice wasn’t good. Sar­gas­sum has start­ed two months ear­ly, and it will be ex­treme­ly dif­fi­cult for prop­er­ties to keep beach ar­eas clean, es­pe­cial­ly with the down­turn in book­ings. And what about the ad­just­ments to the To­ba­go Land Act that has crip­pled To­ba­go since 2005 in­tro­duc­tion?”