The Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Commerce has described yesterday’s 2009/2010 budget as a ’continuation of previous budgets’.

Government continued to focus on social programmes but the budget did not address the problem of building a diversified and sustainable economy, ’especially after the experience of this year’s global crisis which clearly showed the vulnerability of our economy to oil and gas revenues’, the Chamber said in a statement last night.

Another of the country’s larger business groups, the Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers’ Association, welcomed the measures outlined in the budget to support the local manufacturing sector, including the increases in capital allowance for plant and machinery from 75 per cent to 90 per cent.

In a statement last night, the TTMA said the announcement that local contractors will be given the opportunity to provide services to Government in infrastructure development will provide a stimulus for that sector.