Health and Education

In a show of commitment to the well-being of citizens, the government allocated TT$6.03bn ($894.4m) to the health sector in the FY 2018 budget, placing it in the top-three publicly funded areas of the economy behind education and national security. While this figure represents a decline from FY 2017, when the allocation was TT$6.25bn ($927m), health funding has risen since 2010. Meanwhile, the human capital requirements of globalisation and the information age are placing great demands on economic and educational structures in Trinidad and Tobago. The government therefore confirmed its commitment to developing a knowledge-based economy with a TT$7.3bn ($1.1bn) allocation for education and training in the FY 2018 budget, which was the largest of any sector. The contribution of education to GDP in 2017 is estimated at 2.7%, which is marginally higher than the 2016 figure of 2.6%. This chapter contains an interview with David Dulal-Whiteaway, CEO, Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business.