THE departure of financial technology company WiPay last year illustrates the steady flight of businesses from Trinidad and Tobago, with no new businesses emerging to replace them. 

Not surprisingly, the company has blamed the Government’s red tape. That is the exact reason for billions of dollars worth of business investments fleeing to greener pastures over the past seven years. 

The company has blamed the Government’s red tape

Not only that, WiPay was a foreign exchange earner, diversifying our economy away from oil and gas, into the lucrative FinTech sector. The Rowley government has not attracted or fostered any business to replace it.

This is in sharp contrast to the US $1.5 billion a year that the Kamla Persad-Bisssessar Government attracted during each of its final three years.  Mrs. Persad-Bissessar’s Administration had introduced measures that made T&T one of the most attractive business destinations in the western hemisphere.

Mrs. Persad-Bissessar made T&T one of the most attractive business destinations in the western hemisphere 

The Rowley regime has led T&T to its most disastrous position on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business metrics, even worse than that of Haiti, the poorest nation in the hemisphere. 

The flight of commercial interests is a primary reason for the current foreign exchange squeeze. 

The flight of commercial interests is a primary reason for the current foreign exchange squeeze. 

“The Ease of Doing Business is the problem,” WiPay’s founder Aldwyn Wayne, a Trinidadian, told a parliamentary committee. 

He has taken his business to Jamaica. 

The exodus continues.