En­ti­ties and oth­er or­gan­i­sa­tions have al­ready be­gun to sub­mit rec­om­men­da­tions to the Min­istry of Fi­nance for the up­com­ing na­tion­al bud­get for the 2025 fis­cal year.

The T&T Coali­tion of Ser­vices In­dus­tries (TTC­SI), in its ca­pac­i­ty as the na­tion­al um­brel­la or­gan­i­sa­tion for the ser­vices sec­tor, has pre­sent­ed its sub­mis­sions on be­half of the in­dus­try rep­re­sent­ing 54 as­so­ci­a­tions and 700,000 mem­bers.

Pres­i­dent Di­anne Joseph told the Busi­ness Guardian rec­om­men­da­tions were de­rived fol­low­ing con­sul­ta­tions with mem­bers, which in­clud­ed a di­verse ar­ray of busi­ness­es across the ser­vices sec­tor, adding that these will serve to fos­ter a sup­port­ive and en­abling busi­ness en­vi­ron­ment, stim­u­late eco­nom­ic growth, and re­dound to the ben­e­fit of not on­ly mem­bers but T&T.

In iden­ti­fy­ing the TTC­SI’s top five pri­or­i­ty ar­eas, Joseph said this en­com­pass­es the es­tab­lish­ment of a ser­vices task­force with stan­dards and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­grammes.

She added this task­force would play a cru­cial role in de­vel­op­ing in­dus­try stan­dards.

“Stan­dard­i­s­a­tion is es­sen­tial for en­sur­ing qual­i­ty and con­sis­ten­cy with­in ser­vice in­dus­tries. The task­force would col­lab­o­rate with in­dus­try stake­hold­ers to de­fine and im­ple­ment sec­tor-spe­cif­ic stan­dards, en­hanc­ing the com­pet­i­tive­ness of Trinida­di­an ser­vice providers in the glob­al mar­ket,” Joseph ex­plained.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, she not­ed in con­junc­tion with the de­vel­op­ment of stan­dards, the task­force would ad­vo­cate for the cre­ation of cer­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­grammes stat­ing, “Busi­ness­es that meet es­tab­lished stan­dards could be award­ed cer­ti­fi­ca­tions, demon­strat­ing their com­mit­ment to qual­i­ty and pro­vid­ing them with a com­pet­i­tive edge.”

Fur­ther, Joseph said the task­force could al­so play a role in ad­vis­ing the Gov­ern­ment on reg­u­la­tions and ac­cred­i­ta­tion process­es re­lat­ed to ser­vices, adding that stream­lined reg­u­la­tions and ef­fi­cient ac­cred­i­ta­tion sys­tems would en­cour­age busi­ness growth with­in the sec­tor.

An­oth­er sug­ges­tion is an ex­port boost­er pro­gramme for ser­vices and cen­tres of ex­cel­lence for in­no­va­tion.

The TTC­SI recog­nis­es the po­ten­tial for ser­vices ex­ports to con­tribute sig­nif­i­cant­ly to na­tion­al eco­nom­ic di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion and to cap­i­talise on this, the en­ti­ty rec­om­mend­ed ex­port boost­er pro­gramme for ser­vices.

“This pro­gramme would of­fer tar­get­ed sup­port to ser­vice-based busi­ness­es seek­ing to ex­port their of­fer­ings. It could in­clude as­sis­tance with mar­ket re­search, trade mis­sions, mar­ket­ing and pro­mo­tion and com­pli­ance with in­ter­na­tion­al trade reg­u­la­tions,” Joseph ex­plained.

She al­so ad­vised that es­tab­lish­ing cen­tres of ex­cel­lence fo­cused on spe­cif­ic ser­vice in­dus­tries would fos­ter in­no­va­tion and en­tre­pre­neur­ship, not­ing that these cen­tres could pro­vide re­sources, train­ing, and men­tor­ship ini­tia­tives to help busi­ness­es de­vel­op cut­ting-edge ser­vice of­fer­ings that meet glob­al mar­ket de­mands.

The TTC­SI is al­so en­vi­sion­ing it­self as the cen­tral hub for fa­cil­i­tat­ing the growth and de­vel­op­ment of the ser­vices sec­tor. To ful­fil this role ef­fec­tive­ly, Joseph said ad­e­quate fund­ing is re­quired to sup­port var­i­ous ini­tia­tives, such as re­search and ad­vo­ca­cy. She said con­duct­ing re­search on key trends and chal­lenges with­in the ser­vices sec­tor can in­form pol­i­cy rec­om­men­da­tions and ad­vo­cate for Gov­ern­ment sup­port.

In the area of ca­pac­i­ty build­ing she sug­gest­ed there be train­ing pro­grammes and work­shops to equip ser­vice providers with the nec­es­sary skills and knowl­edge to com­pete ef­fec­tive­ly in the glob­al mar­ket.

As it per­tains to in­dus­try net­work­ing Joseph said this is equal­ly im­por­tant to fa­cil­i­tate net­work­ing events and plat­forms that con­nect ser­vice providers with po­ten­tial clients and part­ners.

“Ac­cess to the nec­es­sary fund­ing will al­low the TTC­SI to be­come a cen­tral dri­ver for pro­pelling the ser­vices sec­tor for­ward and con­tribute to a more di­ver­si­fied and re­silient T&T econ­o­my,” she added.

Util­is­ing tech­nol­o­gy to en­hance ser­vice de­liv­ery

In to­day’s dig­i­tal land­scape, the TTC­SI would like to see mea­sures that en­cour­age ser­vice providers to em­brace tech­nol­o­gy.

The TTC­SI is, there­fore, ad­vo­cat­ing for poli­cies and ini­tia­tives that in­cen­tivise ser­vice providers to adopt dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies.

This, Joseph said, could in­clude ac­cess to fund­ing for tech­nol­o­gy adop­tion, tax in­cen­tives for in­vest­ments in dig­i­tal in­fra­struc­ture, and work­shops on best prac­tices for util­is­ing tech­nol­o­gy with­in the ser­vices sec­tor.

As ser­vice de­liv­ery be­comes in­creas­ing­ly re­liant on tech­nol­o­gy, the TTC­SI is al­so call­ing for pro­grammes to raise aware­ness of cy­ber­se­cu­ri­ty threats, pro­mote best prac­tices for da­ta pro­tec­tion and ad­vo­cate for Gov­ern­ment sup­port in es­tab­lish­ing ro­bust cy­ber­se­cu­ri­ty frame­works with­in the ser­vices sec­tor.

Fur­ther, the TTC­SI is en­cour­ag­ing the de­vel­op­ment and util­i­sa­tion of e-com­merce plat­forms and on­line ser­vice de­liv­ery op­tions, adding that this can broad­en the reach of T&T ser­vice providers and un­lock new mar­ket op­por­tu­ni­ties from which they can ben­e­fit.

Ad­dress crime and crim­i­nal­i­ty

The TTC­SI ac­knowl­edges that crime and crim­i­nal­i­ty are sig­nif­i­cant bar­ri­ers to busi­ness growth and in­vest­ment

Not­ing the re­cent ad­di­tion of min­is­te­r­i­al sup­port in the Min­is­ter and Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, the or­gan­i­sa­tion com­mend­ed Gov­ern­ment’s move in this re­gard.

How­ev­er, the TTSCI is ad­vis­ing there be en­hanced se­cu­ri­ty mea­sures, as Joseph called for col­lab­o­ra­tion among law en­force­ment agen­cies to im­prove se­cu­ri­ty in busi­ness dis­tricts and ar­eas with high com­mer­cial ac­tiv­i­ty. This, she said, could in­clude in­creased po­lice pa­trols, bet­ter light­ing and sur­veil­lance sys­tems.

Per­tain­ing to busi­ness se­cu­ri­ty in­cen­tives, Joseph sug­gest­ed of­fer­ing tax in­cen­tives or grants for busi­ness­es to in­vest in se­cu­ri­ty mea­sures such as alarm sys­tems, sur­veil­lance cam­eras and se­cure premis­es.

“Ad­di­tion­al sup­port for com­mu­ni­ty polic­ing ef­forts to build stronger re­la­tion­ships be­tween busi­ness­es and lo­cal law en­force­ment is need­ed. This can help cre­ate a safer en­vi­ron­ment for both busi­ness­es and cus­tomers.

“Strength­en or im­ple­ment ad­di­tion­al crime pre­ven­tion pro­grammes that ed­u­cate busi­ness­es on best prac­tices for re­duc­ing the risk of theft, fraud, and oth­er crimes. These pro­grammes can pro­vide valu­able re­sources and sup­port to help busi­ness­es pro­tect them­selves,” Joseph fur­ther stat­ed.

Build­ing strong ser­vices brand

The TTC­SI recog­nised the im­por­tance of a strong na­tion­al brand for the ser­vices sec­tor.

Re­gard­ing na­tion­al ser­vices brand strat­e­gy, the TTC­SI rec­om­mend­ed the de­vel­op­ment of a na­tion­al ser­vices brand strat­e­gy that high­lights the unique strengths and ca­pa­bil­i­ties of the Trinida­di­an ser­vices sec­tor.

Joseph said this strat­e­gy could en­com­pass qual­i­ty stan­dards, pro­fes­sion­al­ism, in­no­va­tion and a com­mit­ment to eth­i­cal busi­ness prac­tices.

“We rec­om­mend the de­vel­op­ment of tar­get­ed mar­ket­ing and pro­mo­tion­al cam­paigns to show­case the ex­cel­lence of Trinida­di­an ser­vice providers to both re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al mar­kets. This could in­volve par­tic­i­pa­tion in trade shows, in­dus­try events, and strate­gic part­ner­ships with in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­i­sa­tions,” she added.

Joseph em­pha­sised a strong ser­vices brand can po­si­tion this coun­try as an at­trac­tive des­ti­na­tion for for­eign di­rect in­vest­ment (FDI) in the sec­tor, ad­vo­cat­ing that poli­cies and in­cen­tives that en­cour­age multi­na­tion­al com­pa­nies to es­tab­lish ser­vice op­er­a­tions in the coun­try.

Stat­ing that the sec­tor is a vi­tal com­po­nent of the coun­try’s econ­o­my, con­tribut­ing sig­nif­i­cant­ly to GDP and em­ploy­ment, Joseph said the TTC­SI be­lieves these mea­sures will not on­ly stim­u­late eco­nom­ic growth but al­so en­sure that the coun­try re­mains com­pet­i­tive in the glob­al mar­ket, fos­ter­ing a more di­ver­si­fied and re­silient econ­o­my.