By: Kimberly Ramkhalawan
August 26, 2022
With the return to a physical pavilion where patrons, guests, and exhibitors can browse and interact with each other, the 2022 Trade and Investment Convention calls for a different approach to business and what is viewed as marketable.
The convention comes to a physical space this week after a two-year hiatus owing to the pandemic that prohibited large gatherings and events of such a magnitude.
When last held in 2019, TIC saw some 17,000 patrons visit the exhibition. This year, TTMA CEO, Dr Ramesh Ramdeen in opening the event as master of ceremonies for the official start, assured Health Minister Terrance Deyalsingh that numbers entering the pavilion will be monitored during its running.
This week’s event comes on the heels of Trinidad and Tobago hosting the second leg of the Agro Investment Expo, brain child of CARICOM with Guyana’s President, Dr Irfaan Ali and Barbados PM Mia Mottley charting the way. With this in mind, Dr Ramdeen expressed his hopes that both events could take up two back-to-back weeks on the calendar on an annual basis, by bringing investors and participants from around the world for the period, inviting them to showcase their product offerings, and at the same time explore what Trinidad and Tobago had to offer in partnerships outside of the oil and gas sector and see its manufacturing potential in food and beverages and textiles to name a few.
Also sharing remarks at the opening, THA leader Farley Augustine gave his perspective on rebuilding, post damages sustained following global disasters such as the pandemic and the effects emanating from the war. He said that surviving such disasters required a ‘hanging out” together and finding ways in which participants could collaborate and truly be resilient. As for representing Tobago, the THA leader says this year the island felt the need to “show up bigger” and represent the small and microenterprises from the island. Apart from tangible products, he says marketing the creative sector, was one in which he saw the need to change how we view what is marketed. Augustine shared that in order to see it thrive, investing in the creative arts was needed, and likened “what Rihanna was to Barbados’ economy as well as Usain Bolt and Bob Marley was to the Jamaican tourism sector. He says time and time again, we push the creatives to aside, but they have a potential in really leading our country into the kind of diversification thrust that is required”.
Augustine added that Trinidad and Tobago had to go beyond post haste, these opportunities and begin to ensure that it does not do like turtles and stay above rough waters, but makes its landing and nesting sure and be able to put our societies at a place where we can earn and be successful.
However it was InvesTT’s Franka Costelloe who described the actual holding of the physical space event as an “important event for T&T Business”. She went on state that “It is encouraging, exciting really to see businesses rise out of the ashes of difficult times, times that we still battle, as we must acknowledge the global impact of war, supply shortages and the disruption to distribution. It is not enough to say we are just resilient any longer, we must be brave enough to do the thing we do differently we must adapt to the efficient, the responsive and accountable. The agro investment forum last week made a clear call to invest in our food sustainability through agro processing with a goal for CARICOM to reduce its import bill by 25 percent, remembering what gets measured gets done”.
Meanwhile, opening the event, TTMA President Tricia Coosal highlighted the impact public private partnerships has been having on business, including the export booster initiative which is the TIC’s testament of the coming together of the TTMA with the relevant state agencies to achieve goals set or targeted at enhancing manufacturing outside the energy sector , which also includes generating business activity, employment and export. Coosal added part of this PPP, is the working together on several trade missions and meetings planned before year’s end.
Keynote speaker, Trade and Industry Minister Paula Gopee Scoon disclosed how much her government had been working with the private sector in advancing supply chains through exporTT’s International Certification Fund (ICF), which is all under the Export Booster Initiative.
Minister Gopee Scoon said arising from this was some 11 companies benefiting from the ICF. According to the minister “The overall thrust of the initiative is to facilitate the continuing evolution of the manufacturing sector to become globally competitive, productive, and innovative. In this vein, the ICF provides assistance to exporters in achieving international certification in food/beverage and other product compliance so as to meet the quality and safety standards of international markets and franchises; reduce the quantity of imported goods that can be produced locally (i.e. import substitution); and boost the production of non-energy exports”.
127 booths are said to have registered for this year’s event, representing over 180 companies participating in this year’s event. 34 countries registered to be part of the event and 25 international companies said to be present. Also on the agenda is some 250 B2B meetings and 21 educational and informative webinars.