100 different ways to invest in TT.
By Clint Chan Tack (Newsday).GOVERNMENT will be offering business persons from the Commonwealth, the Americas and other European nations the opportunity to consider investing in 100 projects which it believes will diversify and strengthen Trinidad and Tobago’s economy as the country continues to weather the ongoing effects of the world financial crisis.
Trade and Industry Minister Mariano Browne made this disclosure when he addressed a news conference last Friday about the Commonwealth Business Forum (CBF) which began on board the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Serenade of the Seas on Tuesday and ends today. The CBF is one of several important events which takes place before the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) which will be held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel and Conference Centre in Port-of-Spain from Friday to Sunday.
Browne indicated that a total of 893 participants have confirmed their attendance in the CBF. Of this number 390 are business persons from TT.
The remaining 503 are business representatives from other Commonwealth nations, the Americas and European countries which are not members of the Commonwealth.
The three day forum will comprise a total of 20 plenary sessions and 25 breakout sessions that will cover a wide range of economic matters. “The purpose of the event is to bring public and private stakeholders together. We expect at the end of the day, there will be private one-on-one sessions,” the minister said.
He added that the latter meetings would involve matchmaking between local and foreign business persons in similar disciplines which could result in “possible investment opportunities.” Browne also hinted at the possibility of establishing new diplomatic ties with countries attending the CHOGM which could open the door to trade and investment in TT in the not too distant future. In anticipation of this meeting, Browne said Government has been doing its homework.
“The first order of business is to meet them and to talk about them. We have sent 100 projects which we are working on at different levels in business in Trinidad, at official government agencies. We have essentially seeded the market by putting some things that we are specifcally interested in,” he said. The compilation and presentation of these 100 projects was the responsibility of the Evolving Technologies and Enterprise Development Company (Eteck). “Do we know what? Yes. Which countries? We are ready to do business with anybody,” Browne declared.
Are the majority of the 100 projects based in the energy sector? “Most of them are not related to the energy sector,” Browne said. However some of the projects will involve investments in energy because the energy sector remains “very much the centre of our business.”
The minister said even though the sector’s focus has shifted from crude oil to natural gas, “we do have a rich hydrocarbon deposit.” Stating that the Government is currently in the middle of another bid round for onshore and offshore acreages, Browne said one would not be “telling tales out of school” if there were not links between the CBF and the bid round.
He said it was instructive to note that one of the business leaders attending the CBF will be Dr Anthony Hayward, Chief Executive of the British Petroleum (BP) Group, under which bpTT falls. Browne added that “at least ten or 12 energy ministers and other interested parties in the oil and gas sector” will be attending the CBF.
Browne also recalled that this country’s West Africa energy initiative was born out of a presentation which Prime Minister Patrick Manning made at the 2007 CHOGM in Kampala, Uganda on the history of commercial oil production in TT.
He said since 2007, there have been “at least three technical exchanges between 12 West African countries and ourselves during the course of the year.” This also resulted in a mini TT-West Africa energy summit in May at the Hyatt. “Some of those visitors will be back again. Yes there will be additional conversations. We have provided so far technical assistance,” the minister noted. Among the nations who are participating in the TT-West Africa energy initiative, which will be attending the CHOGM, are Cameroon and Nigeria.
He added that the private sector has continued the leads which Government established in this venture and this was evident from the South Trinidad Chamber of Industry and Commerce sending a delegation to West Africa earlier this year.
“It is not only about Government doing business here,” Browne said. However he was quick to point out that “ they will not be the only conversations that will be had.” “Those 100 projects. Most of them are not related to the energy sector,” the minister stated.
On the issue of energy, Commonwealth Business Council Director-General Dr Mohan Kaul
said Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni “is very keen to have discussions with the Prime Minister here.” He said Sierra Leone will also be hoping to use CHOGM as an opportunity to partner with TT to help develop its energy sector, in light of recent hydrocarbon discoveries in that East African nation.
On the non-energy side of the coin, Kaul revealed that Indian information communication technology (ICT) giant Tata is sending a large delegation to the CHOGM to discuss establish software services in this country. Recalling that TT already has a trade investment and promotion agreement with India, Browne said: “We had this discussion in India in September.”
While India’s trade minister will not be attending the CHOGM due to the start of World Trade Organisation talks in Geneva, Switzerland last Sunday, Browne said he would be speaking with India’s foreign minister on those matters during the CHOGM. After CHOGM, Browne was confident he would have an opportunity to meet his Indian counterpart in Geneva “and have a discussion.”
“We have already fixed 50 meetings with investors. All various projects. oil and gas, ICT, agriculture. We hope to have meetings that will develop into partnerships in the future,” Kaul said. “This event (CBF) has now become an integral part of CHOGM. The business event is very close to the political event that we are having here in CHOGM. This business has helped to get investment into the countries where CHOGM is organised,” Kaul was confident that at least $1billion in investments in TT could be generated out of the CHOGM.
From the wider perspective of the Commowealth, Kaul said trade in the Commonwealth had increased from $2 trillion to $3 trillion.
With investment flows standing at approximately $200 billion, Kaul was “very encouraged that this CHOGM will take those figures to much higher levels. Kaul said this week’s CHOGM is going to be very important since the Heads of State will discuss what the Commonwealth “should be doing in the future.”
Noting that the CBF reduces the cost of doing business in the Commonwealth, Kaul said one of the important lessons which all Commonwealth countries would do well to heed is that skills development is one of the very important tool needed to survive the world financial crisis. “Those countries that invest in more skills development will be better off in the future,” he added.
Last week the importance of climate change took on a new meaning at CHOGM, given the fact that French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Denmark Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon will be attending the meeting ahead of the UN Climate Change talks which will be held in Copenhagen, Denmark. Manning announced the trio’s attendance at the CHOGM in an address to the nation last Wednesday night.
Does this mean it will overshadow the world financial crisis and other issues on the agenda for discussion at the CHOGM? Browne was clear in dismissing any suggestion that this would be the case. “Climate change is very much about economics.
The two are substantially related. It is not a question of overshadow. you want to have an arrangement where economic development does not prejudice our continued existence. These things have to work in lockstep,” he said.
Will having the CHOGM in Port-of-Spain be a plus to achieving the goals which this country and Caricom on a broader level hope to achieve out of the meeting, Browne observed: “It’s always good to bat on your own soil and to play on your own wicket.” Noting that Caricom is already treating with several of the issues which will be on the table for discussion at the CHOGM, Browne said all of the participating countries will have an equal vote. Like the Fifth Summit of the Americas, Manning has been billing the CHOGM as “a Caricom event.”
Caricom leaders will meet in caucus today at the Hyatt Regency to fine-tune their strategies for the CHOGM which begins tomorrow. Two weeks ago, Caricom Secretary-General Edwin Carrington said Caricom will be hoping that one of the outcomes from CHOGM would be a greater flow of aid from international financial institutions to developing countries during the world financial crisis. Noting recent patterns involving natural disasters in the Western Hemisphere and particularly in the Caribbean, Carrington said climate change is of critical importance to Caricom and other small island developing states. Each of the 14 Caricom leaders attending the CHOGM is expected to raise particular issues during the meeting.
In an address to the nation last Wednesday, Prime Minister Manning said: “This CHOGM however, is of special importance since we will be meeting in the midst of a global economic slowdown that is affecting all countries. It is only concerted action by all that can restore the world economy to satisfactory levels of growth, and generate the wealth and employment we all need.” “We feel certain that, among other benefits, as has happened in other countries that hosted the CHOGM, investment flows into our country will increase as a result of the meeting being held in Port of Spain. Indeed we intend to capitalise on this unprecedented situation which will bring business leaders and investors from all over the globe to our country. Through the CBF alone, some 800 delegates will attend and use the opportunity to build business partnerships, create trade linkages and set up commercial ventures.”
Stating that Government had invited business persons from the Americas to attend the CHOGM, Manning said: “I am sure you can now see the vast opportunities that will be created for the generation of business ventures. We will in fact be hosting what can be accurately described as a world business forum in Port of Spain in a few days time.”
Building on what he described as the successful fora that have been held since 1997, Manning said: “I believe that this year’s CBF will yield practical ideas on enhancing trade, mobilising investment and strengthening economic links between the countries of the Commonwealth and with our global partners, I an also confident that the opportunities for commercial networking through the forum will be highly valuable.
Browne endorsed Manning’s view on the importance of networking arising out of the CBF. The minister said the forum will give local business persons opportunities to “meet people from different areas and different businesses that are investors in their own right and by the same token, to see what potential there is for the Commonwealth and more particularly for TT.” The Prime Minister formally opened the CBF on board the Serenade of the Seas Tuesday at 9 am and addressed a gala dinner on the ship at 7 pm.
WALKING BY: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II walks past several heads of government from the Commonwealth, including front row from left, British PM Gordon Brown, Tanzania President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong, Antigua and Barbuda PM Baldwin Spencer, Kenya President Mwai Kibaki, TT PM Patrick Manning, an unidentified woman and Guyana President Bharrat Jagdeo, prior to her declaring CHOGM open at the National Academy for the Performing Arts in Port-of-Spain.
