The Government of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar attracted Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) to the value of $1.5 billion for each of its final three years in office, while the regime of Dr. Keith Rowley continues losing investments at the rate of US $500 million a year, according to a report from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
In six years, the Rowley administration has caused Trinidad and Tobago to lose foreign business to the value of US$ 2 billion per year. Arcelor-Mittal, one our largest private sector taxpayers, fled because the Government refused to pay heed to its economic woes; Unilever will be leaving us after three generations. Other industrial investors have done the same. All the petroleum and natural gas companies have cut back operations, taking with them commercial activities, such as oil rig construction, to more favourable investment destinations.
The Government headed by Mrs. Persad-Bissessar, had made Trinidad and Tobago the most favoured destination in the Western Hemisphere, per capita, for FDIs.
T&T enjoyed its highest ranking on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business index. Today, this country has become the least investment-friendly economy in CARICOM, worse off than Haiti, the poorest nation in this part of the world.
The Rowley regime has done nothing to diversify our now one-horse energy economy. As a matter of fact he seems bent on shrivelling whatever remnants remain. It is incredible that in only six years, the -$2 Billion-A-Year-Man and his regime has wrecked our high-performing economy and made it into one shunned by investors who see us as having a failed economy.