Equity fund coming to help manufacturers

Speaking during a news conference last week at the Hilton Trinidad to announce the staging of a special manufacturing symposium on January 25 and 26, he indicated that E-Teck is establishing a business incubation centre at its Tamana In-Tech park and fiscal incentives, including an equity fund, was being put in place to help new manufacturers establish their businesses and be able to compete in the global market place.

He noted that the level of manufacturing in TT is becoming more sophisticated and is no longer "purely of the assembly type."

Stating that E-Teck’s mandate was to promote the development of TT’s industrial landscape in TT’s non-energy sector while the National Energy Corporation had the same mandate "on the energy side," Hassanali said that there is a growing demand by non-energy businesses to either set up shop or expand there current operations in TT.

He noted too that while there are 20 industrial parks in TT which house non-energy sector businesses, "all of our parks are up to 100 percent occupation capacity and there is demand for industrial space."

Against this background, Hassanali indicated that E-Teck is now in the process of building ten new industrial parks to meet this growing demand for non-energy businesses in TT.

He said one of these parks will be built in Tobago, another in Central Trinidad, one in South Trinidad and three will be built in north Trinidad.

"There are people interested in manufacturing and investment in manufacturing creates a huge amount of employment," Hassanali stated.

TT Manufacturers Association (TTMA) CEO Natasha Mustapha said while this country has the potential to become a significant manufacturing hub within the Caribbean region, manufacturers were facing hurdles.

Mustapha said the staging of the symposium could not have come at a more opportune time, given the challenges which local manufacturers currently face. She said TT has always been a nation that has "a large number of raw materials" and thus the potential to develop a significant manufacturing industry.

However Mustapha said this potential seems to remain largely untapped because not all of the synergies between raw materials, human and financial capital have been harmonised. She expressed confidence that once this happens, the manufacturing industry in TT would grow from strength to strength. Head of Industrial Innovation and Entrepreneurial Management at the University of TT, Prof Denise Thompson, said the symposium will provide local manufacturers and other participants with critical information to allow them to compete with rivals in low-cost producing nations such as China and India.

Prime Minister Patrick Manning is scheduled to deliver the feature address at this symposium.

The symposium is a collaborative effort of the TTMA, University of TT and Evolving Technologies and Enterprise Development Company (E-Teck).