Used with intelligence and based on intelligence, there is no doubt that roadblocks are an effective means of policing in a T&T context, especially given the country’s reliance on the automobile as a means of personal transport.

But there is also no doubt that Monday’s roadblocks throughout the country, which were timed to coincide with thousands of people going to work, school, appointments etc were not meant to advance the fight against criminals. They were meant to pressure Government to improve the wage offer made by the Chief Personnel Officer, Stephanie Lewis, to the country’s police officers. Rather than being a tool of policing, the roadblocks were used as a tool of industrial relations negotiations.

Were police justified?

For most people, the answer to that question would be unequivocally no. If Government allows the instigators of Monday’s national roadblock to escape unscathed, it is setting the country up for firemen to ignore burning buildings or homes, prison officers to leave T&T’s prisons unmanned, soldiers and coastguardsmen to fail to apprehend external threats and doctors and nurses not treating people in casualty wards. This is not to mention the untold damage done to the nation’s school children when teachers fail to turn up for work. 

Left unchecked, the roadblocks may also be setting the country up for T&TEC crews failing to respond to electricity outages, WASA turncocks not returning water to communities on scheduled service, T&T air traffic controllers allowing anarchy to reign in the skies above this country and NP trucks failing to replenish gas stations.

In short, workers at any so-called essential service may seek to go nuclear in their response to negotiations for a new collective agreement or new contract terms that are not going in their favour, when a return to the bargaining table with new proposals would be a more appropriate course of action 

The real damage of Monday’s action by the police, then, is that of moral hazard; in that if the perpetrators of the national roadblock are not perceived to suffer the consequences of their misdeeds, T&T’s firemen, prison officers, soldiers and doctors/nurses are likely to believe that they can impose distress on others without consequence in furtherance of wage demands. 

But, in a real sense, the Government may have brought Monday’s calamity on the country by its clumsy handling of the public service wage negotiations.

By that statement is meant that having agreed in March 2015 to pay the 25,000 or so civil servants a 14 per cent wage increase for the years 2011 to 2013—and agreed in December 2014 to pay the 12,000 teachers the same amount for the period October 1, 2011 to September 30, 2014—it should have been clear to the Government’s negotiators that other workers in the public service (broadly defined) such as police officers, firemen and prison officials would have looked to the CPO for a similar wage increase.

In the Sunday BG of March 15, in a commentary headlined “Can T&T afford 14% for public servants,” under the sub-headline Salary Precedent, I wrote: “How can the Minister of Finance justify increasing the salaries of 25,000 public servants by 14 per cent and not increasing the wage packages of police officers, prison officers, fire officers and members of the army coast guard and air guard by a similar amount.

“For the CPO to not offer other workers in the public sector 14 per cent would be discriminatory and “oppressive, unfairly prejudicial or unfairly disregarding their interests or their representatives interests, to quote the words of the Telecommunications Authority of T&T in its statement on the proposed acquisition of Columbus International by Cable & Wireless Communications.”

In a speech at a breakfast meeting of the Chaguanas Chamber of Industry and Commerce the theme of which was Achieving Financial Stability, Finance Minister Larry Howai responded directly to my suggestion that the 14 per cent for civil servants (and teachers) would have served as a benchmark for other workers in the public service, when he said: “On the issue of the public sector wage negotiations, our goal is to have these settled without significant dislocation of the local economy. 

“With respect to the recent civil service agreement, the entire increase is just about half of one percent of the budget and we have identified funding coming from unbudgeted repayments of loans coming in to Government and unbudgeted dividend payments which will allow Government to pay the outstanding commitment of backpay without negatively affecting our cash balances. 

“This does not mean that all agreements can or should be settled at the same levels. The settlement figures will be contingent on a number of factors including, inter alia, the future trajectory of energy prices, the ability of the entity to pay and salary levels prevailing within the entity as compared with comparator organisations.” 

In this excerpt of his speech, Mr Howai put forward three factors to explain why salary increases offered to the police service, the fire service, the prison service and the Defence Force may not be as rich as those offered to civil servants:

Future trajectory of energy prices

This surely does not apply to negotiations that took place at the same time as the negotiations with civil servants and teachers. In other words, if the CPO is negotiating with police, prisons and fire officers at the same time as with civil servants and teachers, on what basis is the CPO saying that the civil servants and teachers are entitled to a larger  wage increase than the other public servants (broadly defined)? 

How does the future trajectory of energy prices affect the CPO’s negotiations with the police, fire and prisons when those negotiations were going on at the same time as the civil servants and teachers... with both sets of negotiations the latter negotiations being concluded at a time of depressed export prices and tax revenue? That argument is both specious and p and if either the Minister of Finance or the CPO are offended by that description, I invite them to counter it in this space:

The ability of the entity to pay

Since civil servants and teachers are paid by the Government just like the police, prisons, fire and similar categories of workers, there can be no distinction between the wage settlement offers. To argue otherwise would be to put forward the view that the Government is able to pay the increased wages and backpay of civil servants and teachers, but not of police officers, prison officers, fire officers and others. 

    It should have occurred to the CPO and the Minister of Finance that if the Government agreed to pay civil servants and teachers a 14 per cent wage increase and close to $2 billion backpay, it should only have done so knowing that it could afford to make a similar offers to the other categories of public servants. In other words, it should have been obvious to the CPO that the other categories of public servants would have demanded a comparable wage increases to that granted to the civil servants and teachers. In other words, the Government had a choice of reducing the offer to the civil servants and teachers to ensure equity to all public servants. The logic would then have been: We cannot afford to pay everyone 14 per cent, but we can afford to pay everyone 10 per cent, so let us offer the civil servants and teachers 10 per cent. But having offered the civil servants and teachers 14 per cent, how could police officers and prison officers be offered less? Specious argument.

Salaries at comparable organisations  

As far as I am concerned, the appropriate comparison for one public servant is another public servant. The whole idea of attempting to compare teachers with “market” rates or market values seems strange to me when the appropriate comparator for a teacher with a police officer. If teachers are being paid based on what the market indicates, why is it different for police officers? Is there no market for comparable wages?

Your mother sounds like an inspiring woman who taught you great morals and ethics through her own example. By encouraging you to focus on how you could make life better for others, she gave you a wonderful foundation that will serve you well in the business world. (I’m writing this on Mother’s Day in the UK, so very nice timing!)

John, you’re going into business for all the right reasons. So many people think of entrepreneurship as a way to get rich quick, but that rarely turns out well. If your enterprise doesn’t make a difference in people’s lives, then you shouldn’t be in business at all. It’s that simple. Money should never be an entrepreneur’s only motivation; if you don’t care about your product and its purpose, no one else will either.

Building a prototype isn’t always an essential step, but yours might help you to land investors by showing them how the product will work. It really can change attitudes. I’m far more likely to get interested in a product when I can actually see it. Try to keep costs as low as possible. Your prototype should demonstrate your product’s most important functions and look good but keep it simple. To capture investor’s attention, it must be easy to understand.

Finding a source of funding for a startup used to be a bigger obstacle than it is now. In the past, entrepreneurs used to have to carry their business plans from one company to the next, trying to sell their ideas. This process could take years, and often ended in disappointment. But times have certainly changed -support for startups has never been stronger. There are now throngs of investors, companies and organisations looking to invest, hoping that the next big thing will come their way. Crowdsourcing and government loans are two other options for aspiring entrepreneurs.

But you’re not ready to launch yet, and funding for a prototype can be a bit more limited. Many people pay to build their own prototypes since that can greatly improve the chances of their receiving crowdfunding or investment. Potential investors like to know that you’re committed to your idea, and spending your own money on that idea will go a long way toward convincing them.

If self-funding is not an option, try reaching out to family and friends. There are few people better suited to doing business with you than those who know you best. You already trust their judgment, and they more than likely already believe in you and your plan. I speak from firsthand experience; had I not gotten help from my parents and aunts, I would not have been able to start up Student magazine or to turn it into Virgin.

You’re also involved in a community of smart and creative people who might be able to help you to realize your dream. Have you thought about approaching your classmates? If not, it’s time that you did.

You can also look into accelerator programmes. An accelerator is a group of people that provides a small amount of money in exchange for a stake in your company. They usually offer hands-on guidance and mentorship, and they can introduce you to investors and prepare you for a longer funding journey. Generally all you need is your idea, and the accelerator will act as a guiding force, pushing you to succeed.

If you don’t want to give up any equity in your business, then a loan is the way to go. 

In the UK, we run a nonprofit loans programme called Virgin StartUp, which helps entrepreneurs to obtain small loans; we also offer them access to advice and resources. Similar organisations exist elsewhere;seek them out.

You’ve clearly got the right spirit, and it sounds like you’re onto something great with your idea, so now it’s time to start reaching out. Don’t wait to get started; there’s no time like the present. 

Good luck!

(Richard Branson is the founder of the Virgin Group and companies such as Virgin Atlantic, Virgin America, Virgin Mobile and Virgin Active. He maintains a blog at www.virgin.com/richard-branson/blog. You can follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/richardbranson. To learn more about the Virgin Group: www.virgin.com.)

(Questions from readers will be answered in future columns. Please send them to RichardBranson@nytimes.com. Please include your name, country, e-mail address and the name of the website or publication where you read the column.) 

How to fund your prototype

If you are able to, it’s best to pay for your prototype yourself, this proof of your confidence in the idea will attract investors. If not, which of these options works best for you?

1. Family and friends are ideal investors, since they believe in your business—and in you.

2. Accelerator programmes usually provide advice and mentorship in addition to funds, but in exchange for a small stake in your company.

3. Taking out a loan will mean that you’ll remain the sole owner of your company. Be sure that you have a solid plan for paying the money back.

The picturesque Eastern Caribbean island of Saint Lucia will be the backdrop to the highly anticipated gathering of the men and women responsible for securing and administering computer networks across the Caribbean.

From April 27 to May 1, the Caribbean Network Operators Group (CaribNOG) will hold their ninth regional meeting, a significant forum that has been a key role in coordinating and equipping the region’s technical community.

“CaribNOG plays a unique role in the region’s technology ecosystem. It is a volunteer-based community dedicated to strengthening the Caribbean indigenous capacity to address the rapidly evolving  technology landscape,” explained Bevil Wooding, one of the CaribNOG founders and a main organiser of the event.

“Computer network engineers and technology specialists from across the region and around the world take the time to share their knowledge and experience with the colleagues at CaribNOG,” he added.

Founded in 2010, CaribNOG has been steadily building its reputation as the Caribbean’s most influential and solutions-oriented forum for network engineers and computer technology professionals. The group has also built strong connections with other Network Operator Groups from around the world, including Latin America, North America and as far as the Pacific.

“CaribNOG members benefit immensely from exposure to experts from around the region and across the globe,” said Jamaican-born Stephen Lee, another CaribNOG founding member and CEO of ArkiTechs Inc, a US-based technology firm. 

“Topics range from protecting local networks from hackers and cyber-criminals to deploying broadband and the future of the Internet,” he added.

Network security, Internet exchange points, cloud computing and global network trends are among the topics to be addressed at CaribNOG’s 9th regional meeting.

“Saint Lucia is really looking forward to hosting this important meeting,” said Simon Alexander, local organiser and IT manager at the Organisation for Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Commission.

“The previous CaribNOG gathering in Curacao drew over 100 people from more than 15 countries. The international nature of gathering affords us the opportunity to showcase Saint Lucia and the OECS   to the world as a significant technology-enabled destination.”

The CaribNOG 9 meeting is being co-hosted by the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), and is also supported by the regional and global Internet community, including the Amsterdam Internet Exchange (Ams-IX), the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), the Caribbean Telecommunications Union, Columbus Communications, Google, the Latin American and Caribbean Internet Addresses Registry (LACNIC), the Internet Society, the Brazilian Network Information Centre (NIC.br), ArkiTechs Inc, Akamai Inc, Microsoft and Packet Clearing House.

CaribNOG 9 will feature a slate of experts, including Arturo Servin (Google Inc); Carlos Martínez and Alejandro Acosta (LACNIC); Bevil Wooding (PCH); Mark Kosters (ARIN); Claire Craig (UWI); Albert Daniels (ICANN); Shernon Osepa (ISOC); Steve Spence and Stephen Lee (Arkitechs).

This ninth event comes on the heels of 2014 meetings in Dominica and Curacao.

More information is available on the official event Web site.

​Despite experiencing a shortfall in labour of 100 workers, an average of six employees per store, throughout its operations, Solomon Yufe and Company Ltd or Yufe’s as it is known, is looking to increase market share. While not disclosing details of its plans, Yufe’s wants to expand.

Yufe’s has been existing since 1938 offering products from fabric, to clothing, bed and bath items, wall art to its customer base at its 15 locations employing 200 people.

Determined to grow the business, managing director, Joan Achong-Low—at Yufe’s for 23 years—spoke to Business Guardian last Friday, to highlight how she planned to overcome the challenge of sourcing labour while strategically positioning Yufe’s for growth.

The legal owners of Yufe’s are Dr Boris Yufe and Richard Yufe.

She spoke after the ceremony to open a new outlet of Yufe’s at 101 Saddle Road in Maraval on 15,000 sq ft of land. The outlet offers its customers not only textiles, but a high-end line of lighting from Europe for household purposes. Having a consistent supply of US currency is of utmost importance as most of its imports comes from the United States and Canada.  

Achong-Low said a shortage in labour can have a domino effect on the operations of a company resulting, in some cases, in embarrassment to the owners. 

There is need for ethics to be taught at schools as a life skill so when it’s time for young people to enter the job market, it becomes easier.

“You can’t open 25 stores without having reliable staff to help you turn the wheel. The customers want assistance, when they come to store, but we are embarrassed, the service is terrible. They (young people seeking employment) don’t know the basics of how to address people, which was not a problem say, five years ago. It is increasingly getting worse,” she said.

As a result of her analysis of the local labour market, Achong-Low said training at Yufe’s is a top priority. 

Our workers get training on good customer service, on how to cut fabric and, lastly, they have to learn about what they are selling, the type of fabric, how it is washed, its uses and its fibre content.

Apart from competing to find workers with high-quality ethic, businesses must now compete with the Government’s high wage levels for less hours of work, she said. 

Ease of operating a business is becoming a turbulent road and prevented her from opening other branches. Achong-Low is not worried too much about T&T’s economy as economies globally are battling with almost the same challenges as T&T. 

“We do face a challenge with the Government paying as much as the business owner. Before taking the job people often ask what are you paying, and we would say the same amount a CEPEP worker gets. The person refuses saying we would work for the Government then go home.”

“I am heartened to hear that efforts are underway by the Government hopefully to cut down on the amount of people that they pay (at the CEPEP programmes). They look as though they are over staffed because there are so many of them to clean a certain area,” Achong-Low said.

Offering a suggestion as to how labour should 

be utilised in the CEPEP programme, she said: “I’ve always had the idea that what they should do, is place two to four people on a street depending on how big it is, and keep them as regular workers on that street, so there is no need for a gang of 24 people to do what maybe two people can do.”

Regarding the overall labour market, she said the same amount of pay which the Government is offering some businesses are offering.

“Workers are telling me that they are getting $6,000 to $8,000 per month to be trained, and here am I offering an employee who has just walked out of university the same. We have the jobs and we want the people but their expectations are too high.”

Gone are the days of workers having pride in their work and it’s now all about the money, Achong-Low said.

“All the workers want to know is how much is this job paying? They are not offering to work hard or have integrity, I want to learn-you don’t hear those things.”

The other aspect of Yufe’s external environment which is posing a problem is the lengthy time it takes to obtain approvals from Town and Country to construct a building. There is too much bureaucracy, she argued. 

“It’s a long waiting time,” that has to occur.

Regarding the operations on the port, there have been improvements.

“There are still a lot of problems in that I find that our containers take four, sometimes five days to clear and that should not be,” she said.

Asked what is the right work ethic a worker should have, she said they should take their jobs, “seriously and when they say I am working it means exactly that, come to work to be productive. Unless, there is a supervisor standing over someone, the work is extremely slow.”

Competition is not stiff for Yufe’s.

“I do see a lot of competitors closing down. I am not sure whether it is we are so good. One competitor told me that we sell too cheap and they can no longer make their mark-ups so they are coming out of the business.”

A female leader for more than two decades, Achong-Low, believes there are not enough women in leadership positions. Her perception of women in leadership is: “If you look at all my stores, with the exception to the Maraval store, I have women running them. I believe in the power of a woman that she can multi-task, she can be creative and hardworking.”

Achong-Low has two children: one is a lawyer living in T&T and the other is a market analyst with his own hedge fund.

Government’s response:

In an interview with Business Guardian last week Wednesday, Tertiary Education Minister Fazal Karim said the ministry has been studying the labour market and developments in it.

“The National Training Agency continues to do reports by sectors, so we can, in fact, tell you what the shortages in the various sectors are. We have priority sectors (to fill vacancies), for example we have the ICT sector, manufacturing, tourism. We have a number of sector skills reports that will tell us the shortages.”

He added: “I am not relying on any report, I have started what I call Employer Round Table discussions. For example the TTMA, the Chambers of Commerce, all of those employer organisations to meet with them, for them to tell us what this labour shortage is, and how as a Ministry we can respond to the labour market needs.”

On the issue of importing labour, Karim said when it comes to skilled imported labour, there is greater need to learn from them. Regarding the workers who are within the semi-skilled and unskilled category, he said: 

“We are going to be talking to them (the business community). We are talking about people who are in CEPEP, URP and the social programmes. We are saying we can also assist with that, with the manufacturers (and other sectors). 

“When I meet with them I will show them a model which I have developed, how we can use programmes to compliment the workforce, at that level, so we can elevate them to other levels in terms of the supermarkets and manufacturers and service sector.”

Chairman of MIC Institute of Technology, David Lee, says skilled workers seeking employment would be looking for pay that is commensurate with their skills, and not for less. 

Lee, who chairs an institute that provides training in manufacturing technologies, was commenting on the issue of the labour shortage which some business owners complain is hampering their production and the high salaries that must be paid to attract labour needed to operate their businesses. 

MIC graduates are employed in the tourism sector, construction sector and the industrial maintenance aspect of manufacturing and energy sectors. 

Lee said skilled workers seeking employment would be looking for pay that is commensurate with their skills, and not for less. 

Last week Wednesday, MIC signed a MoU with the University of Southern Caribbean (USC). The signing would give MIC students more options since they would benefit from degree programmes offered by USC, and the students attending USC would have the options of the tech/voc programmes provided by MIC. 

The Institute of Technology produces 3,500 graduates per academic year at 12 institutions in T&T. 

According to its Web site the locations are: Macoya (3), Laventille, Moruga, Borde St, Port-of-Spain, Mount St Benedict, Sangre Grande, Ste Madeleine, Pointe-a-Pierre, Point Fortin and Signal Hill in Tobago. 

Products and services which MIC produces include: 

• Steel rule dies

• Heat treatment services

• Press tools new & repair

• Contract press services

• Precision parts new & repair

• Blow moulds new & repair

• Injection moulds new & repair

• Machine reconditioning & repair

• Jigs and fixtures

• Prototype & Special Machinery

Explaining the qualification a MIC graduate must have, Lee said: “They come out with a higher level certification as opposed to somebody coming out of school, because the MIC graduate is trained as a technician certification. It really is dependent on the wage offering of what the labour market or the employers are asking.” 

There is full employment in the semi-skilled type of labour, he said.

‘When you hear the hue and cry for shortage of labour, it is really the KFCs, the Subways, the unskilled market. When you look at the high-end restaurants, they are fully supplied.”

With certification comes expectations of good pay. Offering a suggestion for the labour shortage, he said, it may be because job seekers are not getting the experience they require.

“Really and truly what is happening in this day and age is the ‘microwave’ concept. Before you can demand a decent pay, you have to get the experience. I think that is the dilemma that the nation is going through with the youths. How do you balance that waiting period of gaining the experience to be able to command a higher salary.”

Graduation ceremonies are a form of sourcing labour.

“We have started to invite the potential employers to be part of that graduation to set up windows of opportunities to be able to recruit right on board. It’s a one-stop shop as you get the graduates and you have the potential employers.”

Lee is satisfied that tertiary education provided by MIC is demand-led.

“MIC works with the manufacturing sector to see what their needs are, the type of training they would require. We have tweaked our training to suit the kind of potential employee that they would be looking for. So the time period between waiting for the graduate to get experience and receiving a higher salary is cut down,” he said.

Lee is a businessman by profession.

“One of the businesses has been in shipyard, especially in the skills sector where I have employed more than 500 employees ranging in skills such as:  welding, electrical, plumbing. From that perspective that has been my experience working with trade/skilled people.”

He added that MIC is the first accredited tech/voc institution in T&T and the Caribbean.

Tertiary Education Minister Fazal Karim, who also attended the signing of the MoU, said the Government Assistance for Tuition Expenses (GATE) programme  would not be removed and would stay in order to support training and development of people.

“I did indicate what we want to do is improve on the efficiency of the GATE programme so more people can participate. We have implemented in some institutions a grade point average which never existed before in some institutions. 

“There must be a minimum GPA of 2.0 for further study. That ensures that we build into the system a potential for people to excel and to maintain a certain level of performance. 

“If they drop below that, we have opportunities in all institutions to make sure there is remediation of study. Our desire is to ensure we increase the graduation rate and we increase the employment rate.”

The Government, through the Council for Competitiveness and Innovation, has launched a new programme that aims to address some of the country’s social problems by replicating some of the ideas that have made the existing i2i programme a success, says Dr Rikhi Permanand, executive director, Economic Development Board/Council For Competitiveness.

The new programme, called Lumination Challenge, will help serve as the social innovation version to the business driven i2i programme, which caters for people interested in commercialising business ideas, said Permanand.

The Lumination Challenge will provide funding for NGOs working on social issues, he said.

“If you speak about innovation linked to business that is much easier to understand. The real difference is social innovation can be about products, it can be about processes, it can be about services, but it also has a wider remit. It can be about justice or the environment. The scope is wider. In a commercial venture one is talking about productivity, economic growth, and profit redounding to a private individual. For a social innovator, people think about NGOs which are sponsored by sponsorships and the Government,” he told the Guardian two Thursdays ago.

He spoke about “social entrepreneurship.”

“Today that does not have to be the case. You can solve social problems and be an entrepreneur. At the end of the day, social entrepreneurship redounds to the benefit of society and less to the bottomline profit of an individual. That is the major distinction. The world economic crisis and the collapse of 2009 was driven by greed,” he said.

He said an economy and society only driven by the desire and personal greed could lead to another economic collapse and so there is the need to have a balance in society.

“That crisis caused a lot of people to lose their jobs. They were on the breadline. If you look at philanthropy, the very big earners in society—like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet and many more people like them—are saying they make money out of business and what can they do to take some of that profit and put it to work. It is not a gift; they actually want to see their money work for society. It is good that we are seeing balance coming back,” he said.

He spoke about the Lumination programme that the Council for Competitiveness launched in January which is based on this line of thinking.

“It is a brand new programme  and there is no other programme like it in the country. It is building off our experience with the i2i programme. This programme looks at innovative solutions to social issues. It is important because if we look to economic development it is more than just about the economy, productivity and profit. It is about social issues and the environment. A natural move for us was moving from the i2i  and testing whether we can create the same kind of awareness and stimulation of people in the country to deal with the social issues. That is really the crux of what this is about.”

There are three areas they are testing and working on as they get it off the ground.

“Those areas are youth, family and education. We are saying for the first year let us see what the kind of responses are. These areas were chosen through discussion with United Way Trinidad who are involved in social programmes. We want to partner with them in the same way Cariri has been a technical partner for the i2i programme,” he said.

He said funds for the Lumination programme would come from the Innovation Financing Facility (IFF) which was used to fund the i2i programme with $10 million in its first year in 2012.

“We have allocated $3 million for the inaugural Lumination programme. We did that on the basis of similar sorts of money for the i2i. We do not expect social innovation will have as many applicants as business i2i. We are expecting roughly half of the number of awards into it,” he said.

He said the Council For Competitiveness will not be responsible for the programmes that will be generated as this will be done by organisations already working in this area.

“We are saying that these three areas are very important social areas to solve issues. If you look at education the retention rate of children in schools, the curricula, the issues we have in schools today are drugs, bullying, guns. That leads to crime. How do you solve those issues? Family is a major issue. The target audience for this is people who are already working in the social sphere. It is NGOs, it is youth and social workers. But that does not preclude anybody who thinks they can have an idea that is going to solve some of these things to participate in the programme.”

He said the Council for Competitiveness serves to facilitate the process.

“We throw out issues that need to be solved  and we are asking the target groups working in this sphere of activity if they have got ideas that, if they could get funding for it, could move their agenda to help solve their problems. We are funding and providing the mentorship similar to i2i. People working in the social areas do not necessarily have the business skills. We also know that from our discussions with United Way,” he said.

So far, he said they have had 146 submissions that are now being evaluated.

“The independent submission panel is a different panel to  the evaluation panel used for i2i because the mix of people must be different. The panel for the Lumination programme must be well versed in social issues,” he said.

He said some of the criteria he would use to determine the success of the Lumination programme would be similar to the i2i programme.

“Retention into the programme, proof of concept. That means people are happy with how the programme is structured and they want to be part of it, and that we get a good proportion of ideas being converted into proof of concept and some of them moving into finalisation. The statistics for this I cannot say because this is the first time I am doing it.”

Permanand spoke to the Business Guardian at the Ministry of Planning, Level 17, Tower D, International Waterfront, Port-of-Spain.

According to the Ministry of Planning’s Web site, the Lumination Challenge seeks to foster social innovation and experimentation by reducing the associated financial risks through grant funding provided by the CCI. Grant funding from $75,000 to $200,000 will be disbursed to worthy projects as well as mentoring and project development assistance. Support for the implementation of selected projects will be provided through pilot programmes and experiments.

idea to innovation

Permanand also spoke about the Idea to Innovation (i2i) programme and the successes it has experienced since 2012.

He said the i2i programme—started in 2012—is now in its fourth year.

“We have just closed the fourth stage, which is the challenge stage. Proposals will come in from people who have an interest in participating in the programme and it closed off two Fridays ago. 

What does CCI do? 

It focuses on improving the competitiveness of our country through the ranking of the global competitiveness index. Through this we are charged to improve the awareness of innovation in the country. The i2i addresses that second part, he said.

He said they want to stimulate the citizens to be aware of innovation and it does not necessarily mean “people in white coats in labs.”

“Many people have problems facing them and many people solve these problems in creative ways. If you are 18 years and over, you may have ideas that you can see have potential to be developed to a commercial place. It is about a business innovation that will lead to entrepreneurship. When you create entrepreneurs, you create jobs and wealth in the country,” he said.

He said most people have an idea but many times they cannot access financing to get that idea off the ground.

“The traditional lending mechanisms in the country are banks, and like banks across the world they are not interested in such risks. We want entrepreneurs to get their ideas off the ground to a proof of concept. The Government realises funding is important to get the masses into innovation and creative thinking and has put together an Innovation Financing Facility (IFF) which started off with the i2i programme in 2012 with $10 million. Every year it is topped up and it is that which is issued to support the financial requirement of the i2i programme,” he said.

He said of the three i2i programmes, they have had 1,300 applications in three years and a fair amount of success in achieving the programme’s goals. 

“Out of these applications, 145 projects and ideas were awarded. The amount awarded over those three programmes is around $15.5 million. What is important is the robustness of the programme. 

“About 90 per cent or more of the participants stay within the programme. Roughly 33 per cent are already in business. These figures are related to the two programmes completed and another 20 per cent are likely to get to the point of commercial activity.” 

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados  – The Fair Trading Commission (FTC) Friday gave conditional approval for the moves by the British telecommunications giant, Cable and Wireless Communication (CWC) to acquire Columbus Communication International (CCI), operators of FLOW in the Caribbean.

Last year, both companies announced the deal in a joint statement, saying the proposed acquisition, valued at US$3.025 billion will enable the combined company to significantly accelerate its growth strategy, improve service delivery to customers in the region, offer customers a comprehensive portfolio of high-quality products and services, and strengthen their position against larger competitors.

In a statement, the FTC said that it had considered the overall efficiencies of the merger and the anti-competitive effects it will create in the telephony and Fixed data services but has determined that the merger should be approved subject to certain conditions.

It listed 14 conditions, including that during this transitional period these customers are not to be disadvantaged and that the applicants must submit an independent valuation of the assets to be divested within 60 days after the date of the Commission’s decision.

Source: CMC

The Central Bank has announced the fourth consecutive increase in the repo rate. The decision to increase it by 25 basis points to 3¾ per cent was made at the March meeting of the Central Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee. There will also be a continuation of the agressive programme to absorb excess liquidity to strengthen the impact high interests rates will have throughout the financial system.

These decisions were based on recent forward guidance from the US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) on the medium-term path of US monetary policy, the potential for higher domestic inflation in the medium term and the relatively positive growth outlook for 2015.

Based on recent information from the FOMC, markets are expecting the first increase in the US Federal Reserve funds rate to occur between July and September and for US policy rates liely to rise at a gradual pace after that. 

The Central Bank said: “This normalization of US monetary policy has implications for portfolio capital outflows and foreign exchange demand in Trinidad and Tobago, especially since returns on US dollar assets remain more attractive than TT dollar assets. 
“By mid-March 2015, the TT$-US$ differential on benchmark 10-year Treasuries had narrowed to 64 basis points, from 87 basis points since the end of January 2015. Higher domestic interest rates are necessary to enhance returns on TT$-denominated assets, helping to curb portfolio capital movements out of Trinidad and Tobago.”

In January the MPC noted that the domestic economy appeared to be approaching full capacity. The Central Bank said the situation remains unchanged, although headline inflation slowed for the third consecutive month in February to just over 6 per cent from 9 per cent in November 2014. 

The slowdown in food inflation was due to  higher food supply and favourable weather conditions and it contributed to the deceleration in headline inflation. 

However, the Central Bank expects this easing in headline inflation to be short lived, as inflationary pressures are expected to pick up during the rest of the year due to a number of factors.

“Growth of consumer credit remains robust, increasing by nearly 8 ½ per cent in January 2015, suggesting consumers are still willing to spend despite negative sentiment surrounding falling oil prices,” the bank said.

Current and expected settlement of wage negotiations for teachers, civil servants and other public sector workers with considerably large retroactive payments and salary increments will boost consumer spending and further stoke inflationary pressures.”
Government’s spending on its capital programme was higher by 7 per cent in the first four months of the financial year compared to the corresponding period one year ago.

In the final quarter of 2014, economic growth was buoyed by further positive momentum in the non-energy sector, even as activity in the energy sector was marred by maintenance work, the Central Bank reported.

“Discussions with upstream energy producers suggest there was no carry-over of maintenance-related activity into early 2015 and the start-up of BGTT’s Starfish well is expected to provide a fillip to upstream gas production in 2015. Both natural gas and crude oil output were higher by almost 2 per cent and 12 ½ per cent, respectively, in January 2015. The near-term outlook for the non-energy sector is for continued steady performance, albeit at a slower pace than in 2014.”

The bank said its aggressive liquidity management programme contributed to a significant reduction in commercial banks’ excess reserves in the first quarter of the year.  It said tighter liquidity levels prompted inter-bank activity in February for the first time since 2013. 

Efforts to keep banking system liquidity at an appropriate level will be maintained to support the monetary transmission of increases in the Repo rate. The Central Bank added that it is prepared to “further position its monetary policy stance to address any challenges that may arise in the coming months.”

The Central Bank will make its next Monetary Policy Announcement on May 29.

An earlier verison of this story identified the number of jobs cut as 1,000 rather than 100. The corrected version is published below.

On the one hand we promote our country as being a naturalist’s paradise and boast of the richness of our flora and fauna, while on the other we seem prepared to accept the continued depletion of our stocks of wildlife through hunting and trapping as well the ruination of habitat resulting from indiscriminate logging and quarrying in our forests and wild places. 

So we are destroying the very assets that help to make us unique and special in the Caribbean archipelago.  

We have a simple choice to make: We place a permanent ban on hunting including the trapping of wild birds and so conserve the thing that makes us truly outstanding in a Caribbean context, or we run the risk of ultimately becoming just another sea, sand and sex Caribbean tourist destination, limping along on a Carnival crutch.

Alex de Verteuil (ex-hunter) 

Courland, Tobago

With the election season heating up, the banter on the hustings kicked off on the picong default setting. Opposition leader Dr Keith Rowley found that a seemingly innocuous platform joke was anything but. Perhaps he should have said in a moderate tone, “She could bark at my dog for all its worth and I will disregard her cat.” 

It’s really “she CYAAAT!” that got him into a tight spot (Hmm, I can see how some people would interpret that sentence.)

Of course, the ensuing debate was quite pointless. If anyone is predisposed to negative opinion about Dr Rowley’s leadership qualities, such opinion would probably have been formed, one way or the other, already. The fiery opposition leader was doing what comes naturally to most politicians addressing a crowd, he was trying to connect with them in a way they would understand. What escapes him, as it has all other politicians is, picong as political strategy is useless. We aren’t particularly good at it anymore so it could very easily be dispensed with. 

Does Dr Rowley really believe that the people who attend PNM meetings need convincing? When the Prime Minister spends a considerable amount of time talking about Faris Al-Rawi to a crowd of yellow-shirted supporters, does she think they are on the fence?

Stoking supporters with crass rhetoric or exhorting them to cram themselves into maxi taxis and come into Port-of-Spain to support the Government/opposition is silly. Let’s be honest, those people are going to vote for the UNC or the PNM like they, and their ancestors always have. Political parties should be more focused on the floating voters. In an election poised to come down to the marginals, this is where attention is required. 

The character profile of the undecided voter is such that, he or she isn’t interested in kyar-kyar and platform buffoonery. These individuals prefer to hear more about how the political parties propose to tackle issues such as crime, the freefall of the oil price, economic diversification, social inequality, health care and so on. 

The word “issues” is carelessly flung about during campaigning. Political parties tend to believe that this can be satisfied in the form of campaign promises. 

The Government, hoping for a return to office, needs to explain to the public what challenges it has faced in bringing the crime monster to heel. In being honest with the public about obvious setbacks in the fight against crime, they are more likely to find fertile ground for the actual gains in reducing serious crime. In other words, “Crime is down, but we still have a lot of work to do, and here is how we are going to do it.” 

The public wants to know what is being done to change the culture of low productivity in the public service. Is an overly bureaucratic hierarchy antithetical to efficiency in the service? What is the reward system to motivate talent in the public service and how difficult is it to remove lazy louts? If the Government has identified the root of the problem and the path to change then this is what people would most like to know. 

The price of oil is not showing any signs of recovery, how are we prepared to deal with the inevitable fallout? Are we using the current circumstances to accelerate economic diversification initiatives? If so, exactly how is it going to be done? 

The undecided voter needs more than fancy catch phrases like “three-pronged approach” or a “ten-point plan.”

The Opposition, courting the public for another chance at the helm (or the till) does not have the luxury of pleading innocence for our current state of affairs. Prior to this Government taking office in 2010, the PNM governed for two consecutive terms. This country didn’t get to where it is in the last four and a half years. 

The public needs to know Dr Rowley’s vision for combatting crippling traffic, apart from the rapid rail (which cannot convey large volumes of commuters.) As we are on the rapid rail, Dr Rowley has rapped the Government for mismanagement of the economy in a time of flat oil prices. Can the PNM put the rapid rail (which they have indicated will be undertaken if they get back into office) in the context of a weak oil market? How will this project be financed? 

Will there be borrowing, the same borrowing for which the Opposition has roundly condemned the Government?

The PNM has slammed this administration’s handling of crime; how did they fare when they were in office? How does Dr Rowley propose to rid this country of violent crime?

If either of the two major political parties has any interest of contesting the vote that actually counts, the undecided, then they must confront the everyday concerns that affect our lives. 

Dog and cyaat, and the subsequent demands for an apology from the Opposition leader is dinosaur politics. The “attack Rowley’ or slander Kamla strategy only works on the folks who’ve already drunk the cool-aid.