Tuesday, April 21 2009

“MORE agreement than disagreement,” was how chairman of the recently concluded Private Sector Forum, Angela Lee Loy, described the staging of the Fifth Summit of the Americas, despite failure by Heads of State to fully sign the Declaration of Port-of-Spain.

“There will be discrete areas where there will be disagreement among some of the countries but the fact that all heads of governments agreed to giving their commitment to the proposals augurs well. This is not a pappy show considering who these people are...they are leaders of countries,” Lee Loy said.

Countries in this hemisphere, she said, need to band together in order to function properly in terms of competitiveness on a global scale. “The world is more and more becoming one because of globalisation. If you use the anomaly of the body, the Americas can be likened to one limb. So to ensure that the entire body is working, this one body part has to be functioning properly, therefore the small parts that make up the limb have to be working together,” she said.

Lee Loy remains hopeful TT will realise additional benefits from the private sector forum, aside from the positive aspects expected by Government. She was particularly optimistic about the strengthening of ties between South American and Caribbean business and its positive impact on Trinidad and Tobago’s push to establish its International Financial Centre. The private sector forum took place last week aboard the Caribbean Princess cruise Liner, ahead of the Fifth Summit of the Americas.