I commend these business leaders for their vote of confidence in the country’s economic prospects, but it is not enough. We need the entire business community to stop watching and commenting on the game from the sidelines. Ladies and Gentlemen, there is a view that business must stop feeding from government. And business must start feeding government.
I remind you of the damning words that Ralph Maraj in his December 31, 2012 column in the Trinidad Express entitled “The Private Sector Can’t Dance” had for the business community: “For the past few years, most of our business elite have been sitting on their resources, marking time but still accumulating; only a few venturing to take some measured risk to stimulate the economy; most waiting, as always, for the treasury to provide new feeding.