Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: The best insight, instant feedback, accountability, the all new talk radio freedom 106.0 time for us to turn our attention to our morning guest this morning. And it has to do in the name of Indira Sijawan. I think I got that correct. An economist. As we talk about ways to boost the economy, revenue earners. Now you remember yesterday we were talking, right? And while we were chatting I just want to refresh you guys memory because I think this is the direction in which our conversation we go this morning we were talking about when you realize that your recurring expenditure and what you're earning can, your earning capacity can no longer sustain what your expense, your recurring expenditure is.
All right, Your recurring expenditure, those things that are always there month after month and then they have the anomalies, the one offs that pops up in there to derail you on this one month you need to get tires for the vehicle or you may need to service the engine or your water heater break in the house or your water tank start leaking just like that, your water pump go. These are not recurring expenditures, but these are things that happen, all right. And when they do pop up, maybe medical bills, some illness take place, you had to go by the doctor, you had to carry, checked by the pediatrician. These are not recurring things. These are things that come up from time to time that you have to address.
So do you turn inwards to your family, your wife, your children and take money from them? As the government was saying, we have no money, we can't afford this, we can't do that. So we turn inwards that tax you more, put things on this, make you pay for that money that you don't have to sustain it. So we were talking about ways of diversifying and families manage it all the time because if you're a father, a husband or whatever, you have your family, you're not going to turn inwards and tax your wife and, and take away whatever allowance you're giving her and take it back. And you know you will try to find other ways if you to make money to sustain the family. So we want to welcome the economist this morning in Indira Sijawan this morning to the program. Good morning to you, ma' am.
[00:02:08] Speaker B: Good morning to you. Good morning to your listeners. It's Sajiwan.
[00:02:12] Speaker A: Sajuan. Sajuan.
[00:02:14] Speaker B: There we go.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: Right, Sajuan, Good morning to you, Ms. Adjuvant. How is the weather in your neck of the woods?
[00:02:20] Speaker B: Lots and lots of wreathing in my neck afterwards.
[00:02:22] Speaker A: Yeah. This morning is one of those mornings.
[00:02:25] Speaker B: Is that the situation Right through the country apparently.
[00:02:28] Speaker A: So I left the eastern side this morning at around a little after five to get into Port of Spain to the studios and on my way down it seems to be the same way. So I guess it's a, it's a countrywide, a nationwide downpour happening this morning and perhaps maybe throughout the day. All right, thank you very much. I want to say good morning. Going out to Govinda this morning, our brand manager. All right, so as we continue with our discussions this morning, we want to welcome you to the morning rumble. Let's get right into it. As we look at ways for us to diversify the economy, we are hearing the talks, doom and gloom. The country have no money. We're not making this not happening.
We don't have the oil and gas. We lost the Dragon gas deal.
Any, any prospects of gas further afield. We're going. Infrastructure need to be put in place. As a matter of fact, deals and contracts need to be had and that can see us well over the five year term that this government currently has and enjoying at the moment. You know, what are your thoughts as it relates to ways of us to boost our economy here in Trinidad and Tobago?
[00:03:28] Speaker B: Well, Davy, let us start by putting our cards on the table. This didn't just happen yesterday or two days ago.
This country has been in a situation of declining revenues from our main revenue, the energy sector, for a very long time. And in fact since about 2013, the production of natural gas in particular, well, as well as oil, has been significantly declining. So that we, we have been put on notice for a very long time that this thing that is a nonrenewable resource that we depend on is, is declining.
And any smart country at that, once you have that kind of recognition, would have already started to put the country on the footing towards a more diversified base, finding new sources of revenue. The successive governments have failed us in this regard and here we are in 2025 where it is do or die. Because you know, a lot of effort as you made the point was placed on the hope that Dragon, the Dragon deal would have come through and therefore that would have shore up our revenue stream. But where we are now, that is not on the cards and therefore we must turn to other ways of earning income. That is what the reality is in Trinidad and Tobago. There's no magic bullet, there's nothing we can't snap our fingers and tomorrow be having that happen. These things take time. But having said all of that, there are quite a number of low hanging fruits that if government focuses on in Terms of creating a more enabling environment for if it works in collaboration with direct stakeholders in these industries.
I think there is a lot of room for us to diversify or expand our revenue sources beyond oil and gas, but more importantly, generate employment. Because the generation of sustainable employment is now an even more important imperative than before. Because when a government gets a lot of revenues through the oil and gas sector, the government has been able over time to be a major employer, but that has been declining within the last several years. And therefore you need to ensure that your productive sectors are the ones that are able to generate job opportunities for person. And then the next issue is the issue of foreign exchange. So we need to ensure that the focus is being placed not just on revenue generation but on industries that can be selling to the rest of the world and earning important foreign exchange.
[00:06:38] Speaker A: You know, and it's, it's. I'm happy that you mentioned that because I think when it comes to diversifying our economy, what I want to ask you this morning outside of the oil and gas as you rightfully mentioned didn't happen is not happening overnight. It's something that was happening for a while. What do you think in other areas we can look to, to really boost our economy here in Trinidad and Tobago?
[00:07:00] Speaker B: Okay, I can list them for you. Tourism is a no brainer and there are many subsectors inside of tourism that we already have a base that we can expand on quite rapidly.
[00:07:12] Speaker A: You know, I don't mean to cut you, I don't mean to cut you before you get to the others. Tourism, you said, right?
[00:07:17] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:07:18] Speaker A: We have not done anything as far.
[00:07:20] Speaker B: As I can see within, not enough by a long shot.
[00:07:23] Speaker A: By a long shot.
When we look at other, I mean, I don't know, I mean you, from my research, you travel and you would have visited other regional islands and when you get in there and you get the opportunity to see the type of tours that they offer you, I mean USD is almost like their second currency in some of those. Barbados, Jamaica for instance, Antigua and Barbuda. You see that not only that, you get those all inclusive packages that when you walk in there and you know, and when you compare the prices to the packages there to what you will get in Tobago, for example. Well, Trinidad, it's non existent.
[00:08:03] Speaker B: We don't have any, all inclusions in Tobago. But David, if I, if I can go ahead, right. You know, I mean, I feel like a broken record in this say it as many times.
Okay, so post Covid, I mean we still lamenting and in fact we still Using Covid as an excuse for our lack of recovery in terms of growth, okay? But when you look at all of the islands around us, St. Vincent, Grenada, Barbados, all of our silence post Covid, Tourism is the fastest growing industry. In fact, the rate of growth of Caribbean tourism is faster than the global rate of growth of tourism. We are leading the world in terms of the rate at which tourism is growing in our islands. I've been to several of these islands doing work, because I do consulting work. And foreign exchange is no problem.
If you have a US bill, let's say you have a $20 bill and you try to offer it to a taxi driver and it has a tiny little tear in it, they will refuse it. In fact, they don't even want your US at all because they have no challenge in terms of being able to access foreign exchange. Because the economy operates largely on tourism. Tourism is the mainstay of most of the islands around us. Now. It is not to say that tourism isn't faced with its own set of challenges. I mean, climate change is resulting in a lot of challenges and we have to respond to that. And we have the opportunity now in Trinidad and Tobago because we have failed to really prioritize tourism. And as we now start to do that, we have the opportunity to define our tourism products in a way that takes into consideration issues of climate change. So we can more or less downplay the issues of sun, sand and sea and focus more heavily on the types of tourism that lends themselves more in a stronger manner to the challenges of climate change. So community based tourism, for example, is an important element. Tourism that is more linked to products that are more inland rather than along the coast. So are the heights and the waterfalls and, and, and, and the community experiences like with respect to cocoa and dancing the cocoa and, and, and, and eating out of the, you know, the more authentic experiences like cuisine, which is so amazing. I mean, anybody who comes to Trinidad and Tobago and experience our cuisine, the multicultural nature of our tourism, they're simply blown away. And these are the things. But we have to create the products.
We have to create the products, we have to create the mindset and we have to, to engage in the kind of training that is required where we become a people that is more, that is more tourists. In fact, you know, I just spent five days in, in Tobago and I have to say, Tobago, I think, has come a long, long way in terms of its readiness. I felt like I was in Barbados, honestly, in terms of the level of cleanliness, the extent to which the environment is being kept so clean.
Many of the tourism sites are so well organized. But I think there are some missing elements that Tobago needs to focus on. Obviously airlift is one of them.
They now have a new airport.
The issue of having enough rooms is the other issue. And then this, you're really organizing your products a little bit more attractive. I'll give you an example. I have a colleague who was here from Geneva recently and she went online and she booked a Toyota Bukaref on one of the boats and she paid 300 US. Now you and I know the cost of that is 150 TT dollars per person. She paid 300 US and she felt really shortchanged when she came here and she discovered what the actual cost was. So you know, these are some of the issue. Customer service I would say was extremely poor on the island. You know, people, you know, you go into a place and they almost treat you as if you are infringing in their space rather than understanding that they're supposed to, supposed to be offering a service to make you to want to come back. So there are these, those kinds of things that we absolutely need to focus in on. Let's come back to Trinidad and Tobago. There is yachting. Yachting is a no brainer in Trinidad for me because we have so many comparative advantages in terms of being outside of the hurricane belt. We already have, have an industry, we have the, we have marinas that's already in place, we have dry docks already in place. We have lost a lot of our capacity in terms of the repair that we used to do. I mean 2011 the yachting industry was generating over US$20 million per annum. Today it is probably way less than half of that US dollars. By the way I'm talking about, I remember doing research in that sector and the stakeholders telling me, you know, a young man from a disadvantaged community could drop and jump in a bus and he could come out in Chaguaramas and he can, he can, he can clean two boats and he can earn 150 to 200 US per day. Instead what we are offering them is CPAP and URP and we basically through poor government policy have destroyed or near destroyed that industry. A yacht coming into Trinidad and Tobago needs to fill in 15 forms as opposed to one harmonized form coming into any one of the islands around us. Fifteen forms after reason. I'm not sure if that has changed because yachts come here and they spend six months because they come when the rainy season starts and they spend six months. They live on their boats, they buy from us. They enjoy all that we have to offer.
They repair their boats, etc. They live here for six months. Can you imagine the spend that you're talking about? And that is foreign exchange.
And then at the end of it they either go back or they sail the islands.
But we don't seem to understand this very low hanging fruit that we have that all we need to do is provide the enabling environment, ensure that customs and immigrations are aligned in terms of supporting them and that we can make it grow so quickly and so rapidly.
[00:14:28] Speaker A: It's funny that you mentioned customer immigration because the tedious process you talk about the yachting industry even to come through Piaco International Airport, we seem to be so archaic and dinosaur in the approach.
[00:14:39] Speaker B: Because why do we still have an immigration form?
[00:14:42] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:14:43] Speaker B: It's ridiculous. It is. Most places, most of the islands around us have done away with this immigration form. We in Trinity Mecca of the region, we still have it.
[00:14:53] Speaker A: The thing about it is, and, and, and it's embarrassing. I remember coming back from the US within recent, just recently and while traveling, while on my way back on board American Airlines, we came, we had a couple stops out of, out of Miami, I think we stopped somewhere in Jamaica and then Barbados before we got to Trinidad, something like that.
And when we were coming back, it's like they handed all these forms on the leg to Trinidad. Oh, I think it was Jamaica. Right. So they're handing all the legs, they're handing all these forms. And some passengers on the aircraft was asking the air hostess, you know about it, you know, how do I. And she was in a state of bewilderment. This was her first journey on American on this particular flight. So she was lost as to what this was. And you know, she had to apologize and smile and check with her colleagues. And at least two of them on the airline did not know much about it. They just know that they had to hand it to you because it's required to get into Trinidad and Tobago. And that's all they need.
[00:15:59] Speaker B: Because in her world that she now lives in, in most places that American airline travels to, there's no longer this home that is required.
[00:16:08] Speaker A: And that's the thing, you know. So when it comes, as we get back to decentralization of our topic this morning, you mentioned several different avenues in terms of boosting our economy. But let's be real about it, as you say, let's put the cards on the table. What is something that can be done in the short term that will thoroughly boost that? We can see you as an economist that you can see that can seriously bring in forex into this country or give us an opportunity to really earn.
[00:16:34] Speaker B: But tourism is the shortest term.
[00:16:36] Speaker A: That's the shortest term.
[00:16:37] Speaker B: That's in terms of generating agriculture is another area, but that one is more in terms of saving foreign exchange, generating jobs, saving foreign exchange. I told you I started. There's no quick fix, there's nothing we can do.
It all depends on the short term is not today for tomorrow. But I want to say that I feel in this moment, I feel a sense of hope. I feel a sense that we can see things happening differently because there are some initiatives that are in play that I feel send some very positive signals. The new government has been very clear that diversification, non energy diversification is a major priority.
And we have seen them go on the step further. In terms of the kinds of appointments that have been made at the ministerial level. I think appointing, for example, a common mirage in the Ministry of Trade, calling it Trade Investment and it's Trade Investment and Tourism.
I think that is a really good alignment. And the individual that has been placed there a goal go getter, somebody who has really walked the talk in terms of his own business, in terms of transforming it from a homegrown company to one that is global in nature. And therefore he understands the handicaps and the business community that industry faces. And therefore I feel that he will be aggressive in terms of resolving some of those issues. The Minister of Planning and Development and Minister Swartzing, who has spoken to the issue of strong collaboration between Finance, Planning and Development and trade towards the whole issue of economic diversification. I think Shaw sends a strong, strong signal that the country is moving or there's an intention to move aggressively into the area of diversifying the economy and get it done in a speedy manner as possible. I think staying in communication with the people, letting people know what is happening as it happens, I think will go a long way. I have written about the role of the Economic Development Board. You know, we have had two incarnations of that. And I believe very strongly that we need in this moment a third incarnation. But this third incarnation must not just be a research entity as was the two previous one, but it must have more teeth in terms of implementation. It must be linked to the other institutions that are important for economic diversification. For example E Tech and all the industrial estates that we have. Global tt, which is an amalgamation of what was Investiti and Export tt, the universities as well, because training is important and therefore you need an approach that brings all of these Entities together. Where you have the Economic Development Board engaged in the kind of research that is, that tells us this is the direction. These are the industries we need to focus on, because in this moment, we need to take stock. Things have changed when you factor in the geopolitics in terms of what is happening. Because if a new administration in the US and what the whole issue of clarification means, when you look at the way the whole world is shifting away from globalization as we knew it to more regionalism, we have to factor all of these things in as we chart a new pathway for diversification and growth. And therein lies, in my view, the role for the Economic Development Board and looking at where demand is, how many of these industries, how are they transitioning? We have to factor in things like the border tax that has been implemented, the carbon tax, sorry, that has been implemented by Europe. There was talk in the US and countries like Canada. These are our major markets. And we need to factor these things in as we restrategize and we refocus. In terms of what, where does Trinidad and Tobago reposition itself outside of the energy sector, outside of your traditional oil and gas, in order to ensure that we have the best possible opportunity at success.
So, and I missed out one major element. The direct stakeholders, those who are involved in the industry, who know the business, because at the end of the day, government is supposed to simply provide direction, create the enabling environment that is necessary, that is necessary for the private sector to be engaged in the business of trade, the business of earning foreign exchange, the business of generating employment. And I feel that we are in a point in time. If it continues along the trajectory that I am hearing, I think that we are well positioned in ourselves to take advantage of these things.
I mean, I'm hearing a lot of positive things on the business community especially.
They feel that at long last, one of their own is holding the wheels, and therefore, there is opportunity.
They see the possibilities of opportunity for renewed investment and growth in Trinidad and Tobago.
[00:22:05] Speaker A: With that being said, I want to say thank you so much for touching base with us this morning. It has been a pleasure chatting with you. I look forward to chatting with you again in the not too distant future. It has been wonderful chatting with you. All right, thank you. But, you know, final thought before you depart this morning. I will say that as much as you mentioned, there's no quick fix. You said tourism would have been the quickest thing for us to really boost our economy, but the kind of infrastructure needed and conversations needed to be had with tourism, even if they start those talks now, we can look at this happening maybe still three years out.
[00:22:40] Speaker B: No, I don't agree with you. I totally disagree with you. I mean, the yachting industry is just there, ready, waiting, you know, move the 15 form to one form, make customs and immigration more friendly, you know, allow the yachts to be able to fill their forms underway. These are easy things.
These are easy fixes that can see that particular sector, you know, accelerate.
[00:23:05] Speaker A: So then why do we make these things so difficult?
[00:23:08] Speaker B: Because bureaucracy, bureaucracy continues to do that. You know, if we take the whole issue of freeing up land for investment and if government gets more serious with the length of time that it takes for approvals to be had, with respect to construction, for example, that is something that should be done in a lot shorter time. And I want to hope that that is what we could see happening. But again, it is for people like yourself, people like myself to keep calling for it and to now be insisting that these things must change. Listen, we're Talking about over 30, 40 years, maybe even more than that, that the bureaucracy that is negatively affecting the yachting industry, and that's just one aspect of tourism continues to be unchanged. And it's a stroke of a pen in my view. That can change it.
[00:23:58] Speaker A: Okay?
[00:23:59] Speaker B: So there are very, very short term things that can be put in place and there are longer term. I also want to say with respect to tourism, there are a lot of initiatives that have started on their own. We have so many persons who are involved in organizing tours that are on the ground that takes us to all the water for the, that are showcasing Trinidad and Tobago. Bring them all together, have a conversation with them in terms of what does the government need to do in order to be able to enhance what you are doing and make us grow. Obviously bringing people in is what we need to do and therefore crime. And we don't have time to have that conversation. We need to fix crime. We need to create a safer environment.
We do that and people will come.
People will come.
So, you know, so these are just.
[00:24:49] Speaker A: I mean, I love the direction and I love the fact that you can disagree with some of the thoughts that I would share with you. I appreciate that because that is what not.
Oh my gosh, the word Jesse loaded me. But anyway, that's what makes for baby.
[00:25:03] Speaker B: You know, this is my business. This is what I do, what I have been doing, you know. Yeah, you call me miss and that's okay, but got a PhD in it, boy. So, you know, you know, this is, this is what I do. I do Sector analysis, industry analysis, up and down the islands, you know, making recommendations, how you go, sector, you know, in the context of climate change, you know, climate resilience, this is what I do. So I am not speaking to you, I'm speaking to you from many, many years of doing this, analyzing budgets, analyzing. I'm a development tele economist. So what I'm talking to you is, I'm saying to you, this is what we can do. Listen to me. Saudi Arabia, Davi, I mean the Mecca of oil and gas has been able to, within the last amount of years, diversify its economic base because it understands that the world is changing.
If the world is changing, fossil fuel, while it will continue to be important and you must monetize it as fast as you can, you, you need to use the largest from it in order to put your economies on different trajectories because climate change is real. And the imperative to move away from fossil fuel sources of energy to renewable energy, it's here, it's now, and it's not going to go away. So countries are moving in the direction. There are so many examples for us to look at around us.
And the whole issue of Singapore and the extent to which private investment in port operation, in airport operation, making it a lot more efficiency, efficient, taking it out of the hands of the government and allowing the private sector to play a greater role in the management of these things. And I've heard the Minister of Planning speak to some of these things. So I feel that let us, you know, keep the conversation going and let us keep the pressure on. And I am hopeful that we will start to see some of these changes happening.
You know, you and I will be the first, you know, to call them on it. Right?
[00:27:09] Speaker A: Yeah, to call them on it. You know, one of the things I must say to you, Doc, is the fact that when you look at the, at the, at the, you mentioned it a few moments ago, the bureaucracy behind a lot of initiatives and a lot of things that, as you mentioned, by the stroke of a pen, could be done, could be dealt with. It makes me wonder on the ground, is there something else at play that these political luminaries do not see the need and necessity when they are there?
[00:27:37] Speaker B: It's called the curse. It's called the curse of the oil and gas. Once they're getting money from there, they're happy because they're happy to use that, create employment and keep us all dependent. Let me tell you, since 1985, as a cabinet, a cabinet minute or whatever it's called, approving the Allocation of lands in the forest to expand our honey industry, our apiary industry, never implemented. And this is again, this is a no brainer because every year the trees flower, the flowers drop. We don't enjoy the benefit of allowing the bees to be able to get the nectar, create the honey. And we could so expand because our honey is high in antioxidants. The health benefits are tremendous. It is natural, it is organic. And you know, you still have people on the side of the road going to maracas, trying to pedal their little bottles of honey. And this has been going on for forever and too long. They're in the little farmers market. And we have failed to really pull that us in industry together from a governmental perspective and give it the support it needs in order to be able to be selling our honey to the rest of the world with all its tremendous benefits. I mean, you know, I could go on and on and identify so many. Cocoa, for example, we have fine flavor cocoa. Now climate change is a major challenge that the cocoa industry has faced. But what are we doing from a research perspective to find ways and means to ensure that we solve that problem?
More than that, what are we doing in terms of ensuring we have the, what is it, the geographic, geographic indicators to ensure we maximizing the price on our beans. What are we doing to ensure that we have a significant value added industry? There are small pockets of individuals who are producing amazing chocolates.
But, but there is so much more we could do. We could build it into a health and wellness industry because they're the high antioxidant values of our, of our cocoa again makes it ideal for a health and wellness industry. Oh my God. You know, there are so much potential. You go to France for one week and they don't even know what a cocoa bean looks like. They don't grow it. But you could go to France and there's one week of activities. There's a public, what do you call it, chocolate bath that people go in and simply soak in it for the benefits of it. Oh gosh boy. There's so much that's happening in the world there and we have it and we're not taking advantage of it. You know, I, I remember going to Barcelona and going into the small little specialty shop and picking up the bars of chocolate and seeing them advertise very largely that Trinidad and Tobago's Trinitario cocoa is in this product because that's a major selling point. We failed to protect the ip, we have not registered that and we therefore get nothing from that.
And it's being used, being marketed by the residue. We could also talk about steel pan, right?
[00:30:44] Speaker A: I'm not going to tell this is steel pan.
[00:30:47] Speaker B: But the point I'm making is that what we have, we are not doing sufficient efficient by a long shot in terms of, of leveraging and enjoying the value that we can have from what we have now. None of these things, none, no one of these things can replace oil and gas by no means.
But I want you to take and it might be the last thing you have me see. The oil and gas sector has generated employment at its peak for only 3% of our labor force which is about 25 to 30,000 people.
The agricultural sector at its weakest contributing less than 1% of our GDP, less than half of 1% generates employment for about 30,000 people.
And then we, I mean let's not even talk about tourism and manufacturing non energy manufacturing. The amount of employment it has the potential to generate is significantly more than the energy sector. But we have to start to look at the country. We need to start to define how we grow going forward looking at different variables.
[00:31:54] Speaker A: Dr. Sajiwan, you made some very very incredible points this morning and you touched on taking models from other countries. Just recently we had the Minister of Homeland Security, Mr. The Honorable Minister Roger Alexander looking at El Salvador as a prospect of a model that we could adopt in Trinidad and Tobago to address the crime scourge as they were able to bring their ravaged country in terms of gang violence down to almost zero. The streets are safer now with the advent of bringing in the tourist dollars as we say the Forex the tourism boost that you spoke about this morning, I think getting a handle on crime reducing our taking us off that, that no fly list. So that list where coming off that, that list of warnings coming to Trinidad and Tobago will do well for us and we need to do like what Jamaica does and Barbados. We need to put out ads out there now with eyes on Trinidad and Tobago. As you mentioned the oil and gas is dwindling. When last the the barrel was was over 100 US. I can't tell you when last in.
[00:33:04] Speaker B: Fact peppers, hot peppers you know is more more could earn you more money than a barrel of oil.
[00:33:11] Speaker A: That's the point you know. But, but as you say we dependent we, we keep looking at the, the oil and gas but when you get.
[00:33:17] Speaker B: In crime under control is a major one. We must do that. And I said that you know you did extremely important. So it's very important that we address that. That is the number one priority because it's linked very heavy, very, very heavily to the economics because it's also linked to the olsea brain drainage. We are investing significant amounts of money in training our young people and at the end of the day with doctors, with lawyers, we're engineers. But two things. One, the economy itself has not been generating jobs sufficiently for them because it has not been growing. But then the second thing is quality of life. And when they think about the fact that they want to live a particular quality of life, they want to be able to go out free freely and enjoy their nightlife and etc and if they can't do it here, they're going to go elsewhere. They have been going elsewhere. So the brain drain. So, so we invest in training and then another country benefits from it. These are. In order to stem these things we need to get crime under control like yesterday. You know, that is not something we can wait on. We don't have the luxury of time on that because if we don't fix that then we can't really fix any of the other things.
And you know, we can do it in pockets as well because you know, let's come back to yachting for example. Let us find, to bring. Let us take the. That peninsula that, let's take the western peninsula and let us, let us say, okay, let's focus on that and we're going to increase the presence of police etc that we ensure that that area so that the yachts coming in can free because they're bringing foreign exchange which we then entire country needs. So maybe and Jamaica has done that I think to a large extent where you have the pockets of areas within a Jamaica that people can, tourists can feel a sense of safety. So in the first instance as we try to get it under control and for the whole maybe we take pockets and we fix the pockets where we need the revenues to start to flow, where we need the foreign exchange to start to flow.
[00:35:14] Speaker A: Dr. Saja, I want to thank you so much for chatting with me this morning and as. Again I look forward to. I always look forward to chatting with you. A wealth of information always coming to our listeners. So thank you again. Have a safe and dry one today.
[00:35:27] Speaker B: Oh, let's hope it gets dry. Yes, I. I hope so. Thank you. I have a road trip planned to south baby with some friends all to the country. So I really hope it clears up.
[00:35:36] Speaker A: Well, look at you. You able to luxury yourself today and that's good, that's good in the middle of the week.
[00:35:44] Speaker B: Well, you know it just means I'm gonna Have to be working all night. But that's okay. Once I have my laptop, I'm good to go.
[00:35:50] Speaker A: And that's the thing.
Covid has taught us so much that we don't need to be in the room for that meeting, but we in that meeting.
[00:35:57] Speaker B: And again, Barbados. Case in point, Barbados. They say you have lemons, you make lemonade. Barbados made lemonade. It created an environment for which is a growing industry.
Working nomads, they created the environment to allow persons to come, give you a 21 year to year work permit. You come, you live, you're gonna rent an apartment, you're gonna rent a car, you're gonna eat and buy from, from, from the agents that they create the environment to attract that. I mean we have, we have communication, we have road network, we have, we have air transport. We have so much that lends itself to attracting that particular niche within the tourism industry.
We haven't done it. Barbados in it. Barbados became a home port to, to cruise ships. And that's where the money is. The money isn't any cruise coming in because they really don't spend a lot of money in the Caribbean unless you're really organized for it. Because the cruise ship, they, they pay everything there. But Barbados understands that where the money is is in home porting. So when you have a cruise ship starting where you are, people from foreign are going to fly in.
[00:37:08] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:37:09] Speaker B: They're going to spend a night or two in your hotels, they're going to eat, they're going to experience on land, then they're gonna board the yacht, they'll go off the port, the, the ship itself will be, will be. What's it word in terms of provisioned, which means all their needs, all their food needs will be met there. You get, you get benefits, taxes.
[00:37:30] Speaker A: And then the cruise ends, ends at this right there.
[00:37:35] Speaker B: They spend another night or two and then they go take a plane and they fly out. So you know, Bobby just understood, they understand these things.
[00:37:43] Speaker A: All right.
[00:37:43] Speaker B: You know, you have to understand the industry. Got to do the work. They have no easy way to this. You got to do the work.
[00:37:48] Speaker A: Thank you very much Dr. Sanjay Wan for chatting with us this morning. Have a great one and enjoy your, your road trip. Bye bye. The best insight, instant feedback, accountability. The all new Talk Radio Freedom 106.5.
