Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) is a twin island republic with a population of 1.3 million. Most of its citizens can trace their ancestry to Africa and India, with a smaller but significant percentage of them who are descendants of Amerindians, Latin Americans, Chinese, Middle Easterners and Europeans.

GDP per capita is USD 12,182 (UN-HDR 2006); it ranks 57th on the HDI (2004) index. The economy is driven by natural gas and petro-chemical exports but there are well-developed industrial and financial sectors. T&T is a middle-income state, but social indicators lag behind economic growth and there are substantial pockets of poverty.

Politically, T&T is a stable parliamentary democracy headed by a titular President who is elected by Parliament. Although it is a unitary state, the smaller island of Tobago has a measure of autonomy under the ‘Tobago House of Assembly Act’. The (PNM) government has a parliamentary majority. Civil rights are respected and corruption is prosecuted.

Socio-economic situation: The LNG and petro-chemical sectors account for 40% of GDP, 90% of exports, and 60% of government revenue in 2006 but gas reserves will decline rapidly in 15-20 years. The economy has shown growth for over a decade and grew by 12% in 2006. Inflation is moderate but rising, and unemployment (6.2% and falling) is relatively low but economic restructuring, especially in agriculture (sugar) poses major social challenges. There is a serious and rising problem of income differentials and persistent levels of structural poverty (estimated at 17%).

Adult literacy is 98.5% (although functional literacy is lower), there is near universal secondary education and increasingly good access to tertiary. 90% of the population has access to safe drinking water (2000). Life expectancy is 70 years. Violent crime levels are very high.

The 9th EDF bilateral allocation was €17m (A) plus €0.9m (B); substantial unused funds from previous EDFs were added to the A budget. The two major 9th EDF programmes are Post Secondary Education (€ 27.3 m.) and HIV/AIDS (€ 7.1 m). There are several ongoing 8th EDF projects (e.g. poverty reduction and CBSL) and two major regional projects (Medlabs and Regional Weather Radar).

10th EDF programming is consistent with and supportive of T&T’s ‘Vision 2020 National Strategic Plan’ to use its large but finite energy resources to achieve ‘developed country status’ within 20 years. This will require the upgrading of physical and social infrastructure and the rapid expansion of a modern non-energy sector to reduce T&T’s dependency on energy-related activity.

The 10th EDF CSP proposes a budget support package with socio-economic transition as the ‘focal area’, among other things through measures to:

• Support new knowledge-based sectors through enterprise-university cooperation (building on the 9th EDF tertiary education programme).
• Promote higher value-added, innovative and export-oriented activities by SMEs (building on the achievements of the 8th EDF CBSL programme).
• Promote the concept of an ‘innovation culture’ to develop and link risk capital, market-oriented R&D, and entrepreneurial skills.

The “non-focal” actions will support

• Good governance and administrative reforms linked to the achievement of broad social and political ‘2020’ objectives.