the nerds ”, technology is rapidly redefining the way financial institutions compete, do business and interact with their customers. from online and mobile payments to biometric authorization, the rise of cloud computing means many more financial transactions can be done faster, automatically and at lower cost. financial technology companies like pay pal and xoom resemble banks, but are not. yet they are changing the ways in which people borrow and save, pay for things, buy foreign exchange and send money. technology giant google is making serious inroads into financial services with the introduction of a new payment system called google wallet. these global forces will fundamentally change the profile of jobs in finance in the coming decade and beyond. at the central bank, for instance, we have a growing demand for specialized financial supervision skills in anti - money laundering, specialty insurance, actuarial science, cyber security and operational risk. as financial services professionals it may be of interest to you, to know that almost 15 per cent of central bank ’ s new employees since i assumed office are in the area of financial supervision and another 10 per cent are in economic research. i have sought to build capacity in strategic areas to ensure we fulfil our economic and financial stability mandate. as the country look to the future, we must ensure we are generating the right skills to stay relevant and competitive. in thinking about how to generate the breadth and depth of skills, i believe we can draw lessons from the actions policymakers usually take when managing a financial crisis. three distinct remedies are usually applied to a financial sector in crisis : recapitalization programmes, measures to boost liquidity, and a sober look at how the financial ecosystem should work in the future. as a starting point, trinidad and tobago needs to be able to draw talent from a bigger pool than it currently has in the financial services industry. recapitalization is needed to draw out the talent that currently remains untapped. here we should quickly leverage our trinidadian diaspora community. many of us have a narrow definition of the diaspora as those born in the country but presently living outside the country. however, if we include others with historical links to trinidad and tobago, our diaspora becomes at least 360, 000 strong, consisting of highly skilled workers, graduates from colleges and universities, management and other professionals. we need to find ways to fully tap into this potential labour pool for human capital and financial investments. second, in the same way central banks took steps to increase liquidity in

ewart s williams : economic outlook 2011 address by mr ewart s williams, governor of the central bank of trinidad and tobago, on the occasion of a panel discussion at the trinidad and tobago chamber of industry and commerce, port - of - spain, 14 january 2011. * * * salutations : the honourable stephen cadiz members of the head table distinguished ladies and gentlemen first, thanks for the invitation. 1. before talking about the 2011 outlook, a brief word on 2010. notwithstanding a slight pick - up in the last quarter, for the year as a whole the preliminary data shows that the economy was flat – no growth. this follows a decline of some 3 per cent in 2009. what this means is that while many economies recovered from the global recession of 2008 – 2009, the caribbean, including trinidad and tobago was not so fortunate. 2. the energy sector continued to register positive growth but activity in the nonenergy sector declined for the second consecutive year. for the period 2009 – 2010, activity in the non - energy sector declined by a cumulative 10 per cent. now, the non - energy sector accounts for 97 per cent of total employment. if these estimates are correct, therefore, it is more than likely that there is a significant increase in unemployment. 3. the economy and the population cannot afford a third year of economic stagnation and therefore, in my brief statement, i have opted not to present a passive analytical outlook but to identify the many positive characteristics that we could exploit to ensure that we break the current economic malaise. 4. it is now generally accepted that the global recovery in 2011 will be stronger than last year. this is good news for our energy sector which could expect an increase in demand and in prices for oil and petro - chemicals, in particular. the outlook with respect to gas is less clear – although gas prices faced a sudden jump recently. unfortunately, the short term outlook is for continued reduction of oil production which has now fallen below 100, 000 barrels per day. there is, however, scope for some growth in petro - chemical output following the addition of new productive capacity. we therefore project that energy sector value added would increase by 3. 2 per cent in 2011, slightly more than last year. 5. as noted above, a recovery in the non - energy sector is urgently needed ; and while any pick - up in regional demand will help, that is not assured, the jolt must come from domestic demand. in my view, many of