Business community to unveil plans for safe reopening of economy – Trinidad Guardian

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce (TTCIC) and rep­re­sen­ta­tives from var­i­ous eco­nom­ic sec­tors in the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty will be host­ing a joint, vir­tu­al me­dia con­fer­ence this af­ter­noon, to re­veal their plans for the safe re­open­ing of eco­nom­ic ac­tiv­i­ty in the coun­try.

Rep­re­sen­ta­tives from what TTCIC de­scribes as “high em­ploy­ment gen­er­at­ing sec­tors” will be present at the news con­fer­ence, which is sched­uled for 1 pm.

A re­lease is­sued by the Cham­ber says the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty clear­ly un­der­stands its role in en­sur­ing that the econ­o­my can be ful­ly re­opened, safe­ly.

“Every busi­ness must take the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to keep their cus­tomers and em­ploy­ees safe, and every cit­i­zen of Trinidad and To­ba­go must do their part as we nav­i­gate liv­ing in a COIVD-19 en­vi­ron­ment for what could be an­oth­er year,” it says.

It al­so as­serts that the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty will be do­ing its part to en­sure as smooth a tran­si­tion as pos­si­ble.

“We will present a range of con­sen­sus ac­tions—not promis­es, but con­crete ac­tions—that are be­ing un­der­tak­en to en­sure that our busi­ness­es are ready to open re­spon­si­bly,” the Cham­ber as­sures.  “We will al­so pro­vide ac­tion­able rec­om­men­da­tions for mon­i­tor­ing and eval­u­a­tion, to en­sure a con­tin­ued safe en­vi­ron­ment for our cus­tomers and em­ploy­ees, so we can help in restart­ing the econ­o­my by con­tribut­ing to growth and em­ploy­ment.”

The T&T Cham­ber states that re­open­ing the econ­o­my will be “a del­i­cate bal­anc­ing act”.

“The world rec­og­nizes that we must learn to live with COVID-19 and at the same time cre­ate a safe en­vi­ron­ment for our con­sumers, our em­ploy­ees and so­ci­ety as a whole.  Our elect­ed lead­ers are fac­ing a bal­anc­ing act chal­lenge—restor­ing our na­tion’s health and re­vi­tal­iz­ing our econ­o­my. Many coun­tries have im­ple­ment­ed a com­pre­hen­sive whole-of-gov­ern­ment and whole-of-so­ci­ety ap­proach to min­imise the trade-off be­tween lives and liveli­hoods,” the Cham­ber says in the re­lease.

It adds that once every­one works to­geth­er, the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty is “fierce­ly op­ti­mistic that our na­tion will get through this chal­leng­ing time and emerge stronger”.

Busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty rep­re­sen­ta­tives ex­pect­ed at the vir­tu­al me­dia con­fer­ence to­day in­clude:

– Gabriel Faria: T&T Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce

– In­grid Jahra: Cin­e­ma sec­tor

– Rox­anne Pan­tin: Caribbean As­so­ci­a­tion of Event Pro­fes­sion­als 

– Sher­ry Per­sad: Trinidad & To­ba­go Mem­bers Clubs As­so­ci­a­tion

– Patrick An­toine: Trinidad and To­ba­go Al­co­hol Bev­er­age Al­liance

– Anil Maraj: Bar Own­ers As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go

– Pe­ter George: Food & Bev­er­age sec­tor

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