The Trinidad and To­ba­go Man­u­fac­tur­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (TTMA) yes­ter­day an­nounced its lead­er­ship of trade mis­sion to the Ba­hamas from yes­ter­day to April 19.

The trade mis­sion com­pris­es 15 lo­cal com­pa­nies span­ning di­verse sec­tors in­clud­ing food and bev­er­age, paint, print­ing and pack­ag­ing, and chem­i­cals.

Sup­port­ed by key stake­hold­ers in­clud­ing the Min­istry of Trade and In­dus­try, Ex­port TT, and EX­IM Bank, who are ac­tive­ly par­tic­i­pat­ing in the mis­sion, the ini­tia­tive un­der­scores the col­lec­tive com­mit­ment to dri­ving eco­nom­ic growth and ex­pan­sion op­por­tu­ni­ties for T&T's thriv­ing man­u­fac­tur­ing sec­tor, the TTMA said in a news re­lease yes­ter­day.

The mis­sion is strate­gi­cal­ly aligned with the Ex­port Boost­er Ini­tia­tive, a pi­o­neer­ing en­deav­our aimed at pro­pelling trade mis­sions and serv­ing as a cat­a­lyst for lo­cal pro­duc­ers to ex­plore new mar­kets.

Dr. Mahin­dra Ramesh Ramdeen, CEO of TTMA, leads the mis­sion, which seeks to cul­ti­vate clos­er busi­ness ties and fa­cil­i­tate fruit­ful col­lab­o­ra­tions be­tween Trinida­di­an and Ba­hami­an en­ter­pris­es.

Speak­ing about the mis­sion, Dr. Ramdeen ex­pressed his op­ti­mism, stat­ing, "This trade mis­sion is the first time TTMA is tak­ing a mis­sion to the Ba­hamas. By fos­ter­ing mean­ing­ful part­ner­ships and nur­tur­ing sus­tain­able busi­ness con­nec­tions, we aim to not on­ly bol­ster eco­nom­ic co­op­er­a­tion but al­so cul­ti­vate a spir­it of ca­ma­raderie and mu­tu­al pros­per­i­ty."

The TTMA said the col­lab­o­ra­tive ef­forts of all stake­hold­ers in­volved un­der­score the un­wa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to ad­vanc­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go's eco­nom­ic agen­da while for­ti­fy­ing bi­lat­er­al ties with neigh­bour­ing na­tions.

Through ini­tia­tives like this trade mis­sion, TTMA con­tin­ues to cham­pi­on the cause of lo­cal man­u­fac­tur­ers, em­pow­er­ing them to ex­plore un­tapped mar­kets and seize new op­por­tu­ni­ties on the glob­al stage.

The trade mis­sion to the Ba­hamas marks a sig­nif­i­cant stride to­wards fos­ter­ing ro­bust com­mer­cial re­la­tion­ships across bor­ders, the TTMA said.

News­pa­per re­ports in­di­cate the trade mis­sion to the Ba­hamas is the third or­gan­ised by the TTMA for this year.

Min­is­ter of Trade and In­dus­try, Paula Gopee-Scoon led a del­e­ga­tion from the pri­vate sec­tor on a trade mis­sion to Ghana from March 12-17, 2024.

That mis­sion was or­gan­ised by TTMA and Ex­porTT and com­prised 21 com­pa­nies from the food and bev­er­age, chem­i­cal and house­hold, con­struc­tion and ap­par­el and tex­tiles and fi­nan­cial ser­vices sec­tors.

Al­so on the trade mis­sion were rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) and trade-re­lat­ed state agen­cies in­clud­ing the Ex­port Im­port Bank of Trinidad and To­ba­go (Ex­im­Bank) and NED­CO.

Gopee-Scoon al­so led a del­e­ga­tion from the pri­vate sec­tor on a trade mis­sion to Be­lize dur­ing the pe­ri­od Jan­u­ary 30 to Feb­ru­ary 3, 2024. That mis­sion was al­so or­gan­ised by the TTMA and Ex­porTT, com­pris­ing 23 com­pa­nies from the food and bev­er­age, trans­porta­tion and lo­gis­tics, oil and gas, mar­ket­ing, and health ser­vices sec­tors.

Ex­porTT is the na­tion­al ex­port fa­cil­i­ta­tion or­gan­i­sa­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go.