President of the T&T Manufacturers’ Association, Emil Ramkissoon, has welcomed the Government’s development agenda, saying the proposed Revitalisation Blueprint and planned investment in the steel industry could create new opportunities for growth in the manufacturing sector.
Speaking on Trinidad and Tobago Today, he said manufacturers are well positioned to support the country’s development, particularly through the construction and food and beverage industries.
“The Blueprint project is going to revitalise Trinidad and Tobago, and the manufacturing sector is going to play such a critical role in supplying the Blueprint project from the construction sector, where we have a lot of construction manufacturers. And then the food and beverage sector, as you know, we saw the growth. The food and beverage sector is going to supply all these hotels, all these Conference Centres, all these Ports, the cleaning chemical and agents, you know. All these facilities are going to need our manufacturers who produce these items.”
He also expressed optimism about plans to revitalise the steel industry at Point Lisas.
“The US$250 million injection into the steel manufacturing shows growth again for the non-energy manufacturing sector. When that injection is made into our country, you’re going to see more foreign exchange generated into the country, more foreign exchange floating around the commercial banks for other businesses now to use to reinvent their businesses and retool their businesses and open up the sector in a better way to bring in more goods and services in Trinidad.”
While welcoming the proposals, the TTMA President said improvements are needed to the Value Added Tax refund system to improve cash flow for businesses.
“Either you take VAT payments out of the Consolidated Fund, streamline into one fund so when it’s time for refunds to be paid to manufacturers and business owners, it’s there. Or you remove VAT on several raw materials. You can’t remove it on all raw materials. The Government has to do an assessment on which ones are critical and which ones have a high input into Trinidad and Tobago manufacturing sector. And when you remove that VAT from the raw materials, it creates less burden on manufacturers, and we have that cash flow to work with.”
Mr Ramkissoon added that the non-energy manufacturing sector expanded by 11.6% during the first half of 2026.