Ah hear ya eh, buh yuh ent think that's too rosy of a pic? Trinidad is only marginally politically stable.
Further, there is an expanse between us and say, Vanuatu where the financial environment is liberally closed and conservatively maintained. On the other hand, the Cayman Islands have a firm compliance environment. Yet, in both instances they have carved out a niche of some sort.
I don't think our legal culture or environment will lend itself to or support the sort of secrecy etc that tends to accompany offshore financial investment. I do think that to get to the point of attracting positive investment we can't get around the issues raised by Deeks.
Marginally stable?? I'll do the diplomatic thing and wait for your explanation before I dismiss it out of hand. We are a nation of foolish, narrow-minded, pompous, showy and shallow politicians...but we ent dotish. Unless you know something the rest of us and the good folks in Langley don't know...political instability is the least of our concerns.
Lol, you doh think what? We legal culture and environment??? We have one of those? When last Sabga and Habib and Khouri and conjure up any other "syrian" name yuh could think of...when last dem fellas and dem had tuh open up dey books? You honestly believe that if the government wanted to craft the types of tax shelters and privacy laws necessary to attract the monied classes in their ever increasing paranoid quest for discretion...that the laws won't be on the books by next week?
Trinidad is blessed with many resources, not the least of which being the 98% literate population and the high number of educated individuals working well below their capacities. That only stands to increase should people take the government up on the offer and take their black, brown and mocha asses to University and get their edumacation on.
Trinidad is blessed almost beyond measure, booming oil has brought renewed prosperity to the country and we have an opportunity to make things well for the next 100 yrs and beyond IF the gov't does the right thing by investing heavily in social programs to give the downtrodden, not just hope...but real opportunities. We also need to invest heavily in infrastructure, and not just the physical infrastructure (but that too w/o doubt). I literally could go on for days typing....little things like roads...you go thru POS and the roads are almost cupped...crowned in the middle b/c we still adding layers of pitch on top of pitch whenever it's time to resurface, instead of grading the road down and laying fresh on a level surface. Why is POS still prone to flooding? and de Croisee? So yeah, we have a lot to do with regards to physical infrastructure.
But that aside, we have a lot of talent and underemployed people with solid IT skills....I know the technology college is coming, but like Deeks said we need to develop that sector too. San Francisco have Silicon Alley...no reason why Trinidad cyah have Sugar Cane or Cascadu Alley
Nah man, we sitting on a lot of potential which is why, berate him for going about it the wrong way if yuh want...but ah like Manning idea of this Vision 2020 thing.
