The employment impact of restructuring and privatization in Trinidad and Tobago. ILO studies and working papers 2. 2000

The focus of this paper is on employment impact of privatization over the period 1990 to 1998. It is difficult to address the issue of privatization in Trinidad and Tobago without placing it in the context of the political economy of the post-independence period. One of the tenets of economic policy of the Government in this early period was the promotion and deepening of participation of the people in the economic affairs of the country. With independence, Trinidad and Tobago inherited a segmented economy, in which non-nationals dominated decision-making in the key sectors of the economy, and in which a small elite, with roots in the country's earlier colonial past, controlled the more significant domestic businesses.