An­drea Perez-Sobers

Se­nior Re­porter

an­drea.perez-sobers@guardian.co.tt

The Fair Trad­ing Com­mis­sion (FTC) is seek­ing clos­er en­gage­ment with the pri­vate sec­tor as it moves to strength­en com­pe­ti­tion pol­i­cy and pro­mote fair­er mar­kets, while con­cerns over ris­ing nat­ur­al gas prices emerged dur­ing a stake­hold­er con­sul­ta­tion with busi­ness­es.

The FTC host­ed a stake­hold­er sen­si­ti­sa­tion ses­sion yes­ter­day, bring­ing to­geth­er rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty as it out­lined its pri­or­i­ties un­der a new­ly ap­point­ed board.

FTC chair Nisha Per­sad said the com­mis­sion in­tends to build stronger re­la­tion­ships with stake­hold­ers while main­tain­ing its reg­u­la­to­ry and en­force­ment re­spon­si­bil­i­ties.
“Com­pe­ti­tion is a vi­tal com­po­nent of a healthy econ­o­my. It en­cour­ages in­no­va­tion, pro­motes ef­fi­cien­cy, sup­ports en­tre­pre­neur­ship, at­tracts in­vest­ment, and ul­ti­mate­ly ben­e­fits con­sumers through greater choice, bet­ter qual­i­ty, and im­proved val­ue,” Per­sad told par­tic­i­pants.

She ar­gued that com­pe­ti­tion pol­i­cy goes be­yond reg­u­la­tion and plays a cen­tral role in eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment.

“Com­pet­i­tive mar­kets help busi­ness­es grow and suc­ceed on mer­it. They cre­ate op­por­tu­ni­ties for new en­trants, sup­port in­no­va­tion, and con­tribute to a more dy­nam­ic and re­silient econ­o­my,” Per­sad out­lined.

She stressed that the com­mis­sion wants greater feed­back from busi­ness­es as it de­vel­ops fu­ture ini­tia­tives and pri­or­i­ties.
“We want to hear from you. We want to bet­ter un­der­stand the op­por­tu­ni­ties and chal­lenges fac­ing busi­ness­es. We want to learn how we can im­prove our com­mu­ni­ca­tion, out­reach, and en­gage­ment ef­forts,” she re­marked.

She al­so reaf­firmed the board’s com­mit­ment to main­tain­ing the com­mis­sion’s in­de­pen­dence while car­ry­ing out its statu­to­ry re­spon­si­bil­i­ties.

“As chair­per­son, I wish to reaf­firm the board’s com­mit­ment to fos­ter­ing com­pet­i­tive mar­kets while main­tain­ing the com­mis­sion’s in­de­pen­dence and its abil­i­ty to car­ry out our statu­to­ry re­spon­si­bil­i­ties fair­ly, trans­par­ent­ly, and in ac­cor­dance with the law,” Per­sad stat­ed.

Act­ing per­ma­nent sec­re­tary in the Min­istry of Trade, In­vest­ment and Tourism, Abi­gail By­noe, un­der­scored the im­por­tance of stake­hold­er en­gage­ment, say­ing that con­fi­dence in the econ­o­my de­pends on trans­par­ent in­sti­tu­tions and con­sis­tent reg­u­la­tion.

“Stake­hold­er en­gage­ment re­mains crit­i­cal to strength­en­ing stake­hold­er re­la­tion­ships, im­prov­ing trans­paren­cy, and pro­mot­ing a greater un­der­stand­ing of com­pe­ti­tion pol­i­cy and com­pe­ti­tion law in T&T,” By­noe said.

She not­ed that com­pe­ti­tion cre­ates ben­e­fits for both busi­ness­es and con­sumers by dri­ving in­no­va­tion and im­prov­ing qual­i­ty and val­ue.

“Com­pe­ti­tion poli­cies help to cre­ate the con­di­tions in which busi­ness­es can in­no­vate, in­vest, grow and com­pete fair­ly,” By­noe ob­served.

Us­ing ex­am­ples fa­mil­iar to con­sumers, she point­ed to com­pe­ti­tion among dou­ble ven­dors and fast-food chains as ev­i­dence that ri­val­ry cre­ates greater choice in the mar­ket­place.

“Com­pe­ti­tion is there­fore not an ob­sta­cle to busi­ness growth. When prop­er­ly un­der­stood and fair­ly ad­min­is­tered, it is one of the foun­da­tions of a strong and re­silient mar­ket,” By­noe main­tained.

The se­nior pub­lic ser­vant re­peat­ed­ly em­pha­sised the link be­tween in­vestor con­fi­dence and ef­fec­tive in­sti­tu­tions.
“Busi­ness­es in­vest when they have con­fi­dence. En­tre­pre­neurs ex­pand when they have con­fi­dence. In­vestors be­come in­ter­est­ed when they have con­fi­dence that T&T is a ju­ris­dic­tion where in­sti­tu­tions func­tion with­in the con­fines of the law,” she said.

By­noe stressed that con­fi­dence can on­ly be achieved through “strong in­sti­tu­tions, sound gov­er­nance, and the con­sis­tent ap­pli­ca­tion of clear rules.”

She ar­gued that the work of the FTC ex­tends be­yond com­pe­ti­tion law and di­rect­ly af­fects in­vest­ment de­ci­sions, job cre­ation, and eco­nom­ic op­por­tu­ni­ties.

“The work of the Fair Trad­ing Com­mis­sion, there­fore, ex­tends be­yond the ad­min­is­tra­tion of com­pe­ti­tion law. It in­flu­ences the con­di­tions un­der which en­ter­pris­es op­er­ate, in­vestors make de­ci­sions, and con­sumers par­tic­i­pate in the econ­o­my,” she not­ed.

By­noe linked the com­mis­sion’s work to the gov­ern­ment’s broad­er push to di­ver­si­fy the econ­o­my and strength­en non-en­er­gy in­dus­tries, par­tic­u­lar­ly mi­cro, small, and medi­um-sized en­ter­pris­es.

“Strong com­pe­ti­tion en­cour­ages in­no­va­tion, dri­ves ef­fi­cien­cy, re­wards en­ter­prise, and helps en­sure that op­por­tu­ni­ties are avail­able to all busi­ness­es will­ing to com­pete on mer­it,” she said.

While the for­mal pre­sen­ta­tions fo­cused on com­pe­ti­tion pol­i­cy and col­lab­o­ra­tion, con­cerns from the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty sur­faced once the ses­sion moved be­hind closed doors.

Me­dia rep­re­sen­ta­tives were asked to leave fol­low­ing the open­ing re­marks and were not present for the stake­hold­er dis­cus­sions.

How­ev­er, Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands that a rep­re­sen­ta­tive from Trinidad Ce­ment Ltd raised con­cerns over in­creas­es in nat­ur­al gas prices, an is­sue that con­tin­ues to af­fect man­u­fac­tur­ers and en­er­gy-in­ten­sive in­dus­tries.