The new management committee of the Tobago Chapter of the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce plans to focus heavily on maintaining the integrity of current businesses in Tobago, according to new chairman David Wong.

He said rebuilding on any economy required a good foundation. “The decline in the economy started four to five years ago, our current business foundation is fairly quite strong and we have somewhat survived in tact over the last five years,” he said

Wong said building off of that when things turn around can result in a faster building process. He added that there was a strong stable group of people who have survived through long hard times and looking forward to finding ways to go forward. He said: “I think it is important that you build off of the existing rather than looking for new people to spring out on their own. It is often difficult re-establishing new credit lines and history. Suppliers from Trinidad will always ask who are these new people. We have people who have been through the good times and are now surviving through the bad.”

Wong was speaking at a meeting of the new management committee and representatives of the THA led by Chief Secretary Orville London on Tuesday (3rd May 2011) at the Calder Hall Administrative Complex.

London told the Chamber members that he hoped that in these challenging times they would be able to have the quality of collaboration to surmount the number of challenges. He said: “I think all of us are aware of the type of issues with which we have to treat in 2011 are different to some issues we have had in the past and it require not just commitment but a certain kind of initiative, a certain degree of innovativeness, a certain amount of courage without getting into recklessness, but a certain amount of courage, but most importantly all of us working together and getting out of the blame game mode and really recognising that we have to keep it to the strength of each group and the strength of all individuals.”

London said he wanted them to look back at last year and the years gone by to see what has happened between the time they had these formal meetings and the next time they had a next formal meeting, what has happened over the past year and what can be done better, what have to be done differently.

He said they must get it right this time around because they were running out of chances, running out of choices and running out of time.