Capitalising on competitive advantages of the tourism sector, our economy has sustained a remarkable uptrend in the past seven years. With a population of just about half a million, Macao saw its record of visitor arrivals reaching 22 million last year. In the first quarter of this year, we achieved a real GDP growth of 25.6%, after having attained 16.6% in 2006.
Good statistical systems, therefore, tend to provide a relatively higher social return in countries such as Trinidad and Tobago. Over the years, we in Trinidad and Tobago have developed a fairly good set of basic statistics.