Govt looking for five new investors at forum

The Government of Trinidad and Tobago is hoping to secure at least five new investors for the country through the fourth annual Euromoney/Latin Finance Caribbean Investment Forum to be held at the Hilton Trinidad from tomorrow. This was revealed by Minister of Trade and Industry, Kenneth Valley, as he addressed a press briefing on the seminar at the Hilton yesterday.  The two-day conference is expected to target approximately 400 international, regional and local executives and aims to build awareness of the Caribbean as a regional economic entity, promoting the image of the region as a sound destination for foreign direct investment.

It will also seek to define how political and economic trends at global, regional and international levels, will affect Caribbean development. TT joins Jamaica and the Dominican Republic in hosting the seminar, now in its fourth year. Valley explained that TT was chosen as location for this year’s conference as a result of strong lobbying on the part of the Government, which recognised the conference’s potential to attract foreign investors to the country. This is all part of Government’s goal to position Trinidad and Tobago as the manufacturing platform, as well as the business and financial centre of the hemisphere, he stated.

The hosting of the conference, he continued, also tied in with Government’s bid to become the location of the Secretariat of the Free Trade Area of the Americas. Valley said, “This assists TT in focusing on some of the things that we have to do. If we have to get the headquarters, then we know that we have to establish a connection to South America and we know that we have to have efficient transport systems. “All those things will assist us in attracting investors to our shores. We are just providing the environment and allowing the investors to make their decisions.”

Reiterating Valley’s statement, Richard Banks, Euromoney Conference director, stressed the need for TT to take heed of this year’s theme, “Investing in a Connected Future,” and become more connected with the global economy. He explained that this conference provided the perfect opportunity for local companies to become integrated into the international market, giving the example of Digicel Ltd, which, through the first conference in 2001 in Jamaica, was able to acquire funding to establish the company.