Excerpt from the Governors Speech which was presented at the ECA’s second Leadership Lecture - held on the 16th March 2012 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel.

“In the latest Doing Business Report by the World Bank, Trinidad and Tobago ranks 68 out of 183 countries.  In that Report, two of the areas cited as needing significant improvement are: i) dealing with construction permits – it takes around 297 days to get a building permit; and ii) registering property, where it takes ,on average 162 days to complete the process.

Discussions with local traders also suggest that there are often significant delays and charges at our ports, even relative to the rest of the Caribbean countries.  I understand that some important work has been going in to progressively reduce administrative procedures by way of a Single Electronic Window which would help to further automate transactions.