Plans to address the ongoing foreign exchange challenges in Trinidad and Tobago are afoot.
Prime Minister Stuart Young SC said he has invited key financial stakeholders to a high-level meeting next Tuesday at Whitehall, as the issue of foreign exchange and its allocation is one of the first items on his list of priorities.
The Prime Minister, along with Minister of Finance Vishnu Dhanpaul, will lead the discussions.
The meeting will include representatives from the Central Bank, the Bankers Association of Trinidad and Tobago, and the Chief Executive Officers of commercial banks operating in the country.
“That meeting will be next week Tuesday right here at Whitehall at 2:30pm and I also intend to invite you, the members of the media, to witness the start of that meeting as I meet with them. I’ll then ask, as happens all over the world, that you leave the meeting and after that meeting you all will then be told in a transparent manner what was the outcome of that meeting but I intend to raise at that meeting this issue of foreign exchange and how it is that we can address the foreign exchange.”
Mr. Young acknowledged that the country has less foreign exchange than before but stressed the importance of determining how it is distributed among citizens.
“The fact is that we have less foreign exchange than we used to, that is the fact of life. However, how do we look at the allocation of the foreign exchange that is available to us amongst our citizens of Trinidad and Tobago.”