How many of you remember what is a Holden or a Kingswood? How many of you remember Datsunville? When the history of Trinidad and Tobago is taught in our schools today, there is a chapter that is suspiciously omitted regarding the booming vehicle assembly industry that was prevalent in the 1960s which was allowed to die by the PNM government unwilling to give it the proper support that would have allowed it to modernize and thrive throughout the decades, rather than just being a footnote that is slowly being forgotten. Toyota, Mazda, Nissan, Holden, Ford, Kingswood and even Bedford trucks were all assembled locally in an economy that predates the oil boom of the 1970s and created both jobs and revenue that are sorely needed as the energy industry takes its last gasp of air while staring down the barrel of a loaded shotgun held by Stuart Young.
I bring this up because earlier this week, in the business section of the Express, there was an article by Dr. Curtis Boodoo that considers the prospects of robotics and what this technology might offer to our local industries. And it’s funny because while there have been some advancements in recent years that have redesigned both the aesthetics and functionality of robots and what they are able to achieve, the fact of the matter is that there has always been technology available to us here in T&T but the government has always been unwilling to provide either the support or the subvention necessary to allow companies to have access to them. A case in point is the aforementioned motor vehicle assembly plants which all faced the same problem that led to them closing their facilities, and that was the inability to innovate at the same level as their international colleagues and competitors. This fate could have been avoided had the PNM intervened and assisted these companies in acquiring the technology to keep up with the demands of the industry, but instead, one by one, all of them decided to shut down the assembly part of their operations in favour of importing these vehicles from international plants, which not only resulted in the unemployment of thousands of workers but today, causes hundreds of millions of outgoing foreign exchange.
Recently I had the opportunity to visit China as part of their Belt and Road Initiative, and I got to visit a number of companies in the automotive industry that are innovating and experimenting with cutting-edge technology. The highlight of this was a ten-minute ride through Beijing in a self-driving car, which is a product of a joint partnership between Toyota and Pony.ai who are launching the first self-driving taxi fleet in China. As sophisticated as the technology was, however, as this test was done in a real-world environment and the car was able to manoeuvre through the busy streets of downtown Beijing without issue, an unspoken reason that it can provide such a service is the condition of the roads on which it is meant to traverse. All the while I was sitting in this car watching it determine how it would guide itself through the traffic, I couldn’t help but wonder how calculating the numerous severe potholes that our drivers must contend with on a daily basis would factor into its calculations, and whether it would just shut down immediately if it were exposed to our roads because of this.
Another company I visited was the YTO Group factory in Henan, which was demonstrating its prototype for a driverless/remote-controlled tractor that has immense potential for the future of agriculture and land development. But given how little resources and care and given to agriculture in this country by the PNM government, it could be decades before this type of innovation is ever considered for use by our farmers. And this is the frustrating thing, as technology such as robotics, driverless cars, artificial intelligence, and even solar and alternative energy sources are being adopted all across the globe, but because these things have no value in the eyes of Keith Rowley and the PNM, they are given no thought by the government and it is the citizens who are losing out in the long run.
During the height of the pandemic, when schools were closed and children were forced into online classes the PNM had promised that they would look into implementing electronic versions of textbooks that would not only make these studies easier to consume but would also improve availability and accessibility as it would reduce prices significantly. But as the government proudly rolled out their book grant earlier this week, no mention has been made about these e-books as it appears that they are eager for everyone to forget that this was even a thing. And for the government to easily discard what was such a simple solution that would have a huge difference in the education sector, demonstrates exactly how this luddite government would prefer to maintain the status quo. Because the last thing that the PNM would want to do is make things too easy for the citizens of this country,