The T&T International Finance Centre (TTIFC) has embarked on an aggressive outreach programme to foreign investors in the finance and accounting, banking and financial services, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) near-shore industry. Three in-bound missions have been organised by the TTIFC since May this year and nine companies have visited T&T, including global firms based in India, the United States and Cayman Islands.
TTIFC CEO Varun Maharaj, emphasised: "Government has been extremely supportive of TTIFC and its mission. Thanks to their assistance we have been able to influence important legislative changes in a relatively short space of time. This shows how committed the Government is to the development of the sector."Mindful of the fact that the BPO industry is highly complex and any new ventures would take time to materialise, Maharaj added: "We do not expect it to happen in a week. We are hopeful that we will see results in the short to medium term."
The potential investors have met with Minister of Finance and the Economy, Larry Howai and Minister of Trade, Industry and Investment, Vasant Bharath. Both ministers welcomed the missions and shared with them information on the business environment in T&T, the improvements in the ease of doing business, competitive infrastructure, the availability of a highly qualified professional workforce through the government supported free tertiary education programme, the openness of the T&T government to foreign direct investment, and on-going improvements in the regulatory systems fashioned to meet investor needs.