Introduction

• Author: Wendell Mottley
• Profession: New York-based Investment Banker having previously served as executive director of the company which eventually became the pivot of Trinidad and Tobago s natural gas-led industrialization and as Minister of Finance, credited with playing a decisive role in setting Trinidad and Tobago on a sustained path of growth from 1994 onwards
• Pages: 1-8

INTRODUCTION

1

How did Trinidad and Tobago, with less than 0.5 per cent of the

world’s natural gas reserves, establish itself as a world-class gas export

hub, a Caribbean Tiger, driving Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth

of eight per cent per annum over the last three years? How did this tiny

country become the world’s largest exporter of the commodity chemicals,

methanol and ammonia? Why is its metals’ export business growing?

How does Trinidad and Tobago currently supply approximately 70 per

cent of United States of America (U.S.A.) imports of Liquefied Natural

Gas(LNG)? How has the resulting accretion of wealth affected the social

and economic polity of Trinidad and Tobago? This book examines the

industrial policies practised in Trinidad and Tobago from 1959 to the

present, in an attempt to provide answers to these questions.

Over the course of the 51 years, from 1956 to 2007 — Trinidad and

Tobago’s recent industrialization — I have been both an interested by -

stander and an active participant. Fired up by the nationalist policies of

Dr Eric Williams, the country’s first prime minister, I studied economics

at Yale and Cambridge universities to prepare for a role in the country’s

development. I was the first executive director of the Point Lisas Industrial

Port Development Corporation (PLIPDECO) which eventually became

the pivot of Trinidad and Tobago’s natural-gas-led industrialization. I

served two terms in government, the first, 1981–86, the latter years of

which were spent as Minister of Industry and Commerce, the second

from 1991–95, as Minister of Finance. Since then, as a New York-based

investment banker, I have been involved in several sovereign debt and

project financings for the country.

Besides relating the historical record, this work sets out to achieve

two goals. First, it claims to provide a dispassionate analysis of the

industrial route we have taken for the benefit of my countrymen. This

critical analysis can hopefully prevent repetition of policy errors and

point to new directions for the future in the never-ending quest for progress

and development. Second — for my international readers — this book

INTRODUCTION