The na­tion­al in­vest­ment pro­mo­tion agency, In­vesTT will be tar­get­ing re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al in­vestors at the up­com­ing Caribbean In­vest­ment Fo­rum (CIF 2022), which takes place in Trinidad and To­ba­go, from 8 to 11 No­vem­ber 2022.

In­vesTT will be mak­ing its coun­try pitch for for­eign in­vest­ment in­to se­lect­ed sec­tors such as Man­u­fac­tur­ing, Lo­gis­tics & Dis­tri­b­u­tion, Mar­itime Ser­vices, Busi­ness Process Out­sourc­ing, ICT, Re­new­able En­er­gy and Agribusi­ness.

“The event falls square­ly in­to the Agency’s man­date to sup­port the Gov­ern­ment’s eco­nom­ic di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion thrust through in­vest­ment pro­mo­tion and se­cur­ing of in­vest­ments,” says Sek­ou Al­leyne, In­vesTT Pres­i­dent.

The agency re­ports that CIF 2022 is well-sub­scribed at this time, as ap­prox­i­mate­ly 400 par­tic­i­pants have reg­is­tered to at­tend the largest busi­ness fo­rum to be phys­i­cal­ly con­vened in Trinidad and To­ba­go since the on­set of the Covid-19 pan­dem­ic.

Sek­ou Al­leyne con­firms that thus far, the ma­jor­i­ty rep­re­sent pri­vate sec­tor firms from 17 coun­tries in­clud­ing CARI­COM, Haiti, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, Unit­ed States, In­dia, South Africa, Rwan­da, Ghana, Unit­ed King­dom and the Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates. Thir­teen in­vest­ment pro­mo­tion agen­cies from the Caribbean will al­so be seek­ing for­eign di­rect in­vest­ment at the event.

“We are ex­cit­ed to be a part of this sig­nif­i­cant Fo­rum which will bring Caribbean economies to­geth­er to at­tract for­eign in­vest­ments that have the po­ten­tial to trans­form our economies,” Al­leyne said.  “We have a unit­ed voice, yet we are unique in our ap­proach and the myr­i­ad of in­vest­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties avail­able on each is­land. It is an ex­cel­lent way for a for­eign in­vestor to view the Caribbean as a whole and rec­og­nize how re­gion­al link­ages can add val­ue to his/her busi­ness mod­el.”

At the end of Fis­cal 2022 (Sep­tem­ber 30, 2022), In­vesTT ex­ceed­ed its in­vest­ment tar­get by 111% with a val­ue of TT$486.3Mn in to­tal fa­cil­i­tat­ed in­vest­ments—29% of which rep­re­sent­ed se­cured for­eign in­vest­ments in ar­eas such as BPO and Lo­gis­tics/Dis­tri­b­u­tion.

“The Caribbean In­vest­ment Fo­rum presents an ide­al plat­form from which we can widen our in­vestor out­reach to in­crease in­vest­ments, par­tic­u­lar­ly in Man­u­fac­tur­ing which is a sec­tor of key fo­cus go­ing for­ward this Fis­cal,” the In­vesTT Pres­i­dent notes.

In ad­di­tion to air­port meet and greet co-or­di­na­tion for in­com­ing re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al CIF par­tic­i­pants, In­vesTT’s role at CIF 2022 al­so in­cludes:

●   Site Vis­its for in­vestors in­ter­est­ed in vis­it­ing lo­ca­tions such as eTecK’s Phoenix Park In­dus­tri­al Es­tate and Moru­ga Agro-Pro­cess­ing and Light In­dus­tri­al Park, Tamana In­Tech Park, PLIPDE­CO, Port Pt. Lisas, co­coa es­tate tours, Cove To­ba­go.

●   Pan­el Ses­sion with In­dia Ex­im Bank mod­er­at­ed by Sek­ou Al­leyne on No­vem­ber 10, 2022.

●   Ex­hi­bi­tion booth to re­ceive ques­tions from par­tic­i­pants in­ter­est­ed in do­ing busi­ness in T&T

●   An up­dat­ed vir­tu­al Guide to In­vest­ing in Trinidad and To­ba­go, which was launched at last year’s vir­tu­al Trinidad and To­ba­go Busi­ness Fo­rum.

●   Busi­ness match­mak­ing for in­vestors.

●   As­sis­tance with me­dia and com­mu­ni­ca­tions.

In ad­di­tion to pan­el dis­cus­sions, ple­nary ses­sions and B2B meet­ings, the CIF 2022 agen­da will be packed with sec­tor-spe­cif­ic round­ta­bles and ‘fire­side chats’ in AgTech, Re­new­able En­er­gy, ICT & Dig­i­tal Busi­ness.

Wel­com­ing re­marks will be made by Sen­a­tor the Ho­n­ourable Paula Gopee-Scoon, Min­is­ter of Trade and In­dus­try on 8th No­vem­ber and a Fea­ture Ad­dress on 9th No­vem­ber by the Ho­n­ourable Prime Min­is­ter of Trinidad and To­ba­go, Dr. Kei­th Row­ley.

Oth­er keynote speak­ers will in­clude:

●   Dr. Car­la Bar­nett, Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al – CARI­COM Sec­re­tari­at

●   H.E. Pe­ter Cavendish, Am­bas­sador Ex­tra­or­di­nary and Plenipo­ten­tiary – Del­e­ga­tion Of The Eu­ro­pean Union, Trinidad & To­ba­go

●   H.E. Wamkele Mene, Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al – African Con­ti­nen­tal Free Trade Area (Afcf­ta)

Par­tic­i­pants will be treat­ed to dai­ly cul­tur­al ex­pe­ri­ences and pre­sen­ta­tions to com­ple­ment the in­tense four-day busi­ness agen­da.

For de­tails on reg­is­tra­tion and the agen­da, in­ter­est­ed per­sons can vis­it the Fo­rum’s site at www.caribbean­in­vest­ment­fo­rum.com  

___

About CIF 2022:

The Caribbean Ex­port De­vel­op­ment Agency in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go, the CARI­COM Sec­re­tari­at, the Caribbean De­vel­op­ment Bank, the Caribbean As­so­ci­a­tion of In­vest­ment Pro­mo­tion Agen­cies and with the sup­port of the Eu­ro­pean Union is con­ven­ing the www.caribbean­in­vest­ment­fo­rum.com, which will be held at the Hy­att Re­gency Ho­tel in Port of Spain, Trinidad & To­ba­go, No­vem­ber 8-11, 2022.

The CIF is a high-lev­el busi­ness-fo­cused event pro­vid­ing a plat­form for busi­ness to en­gage with busi­ness to cre­ate busi­ness. The em­pha­sis will be on sec­tors that are vi­tal for Caribbean trans­for­ma­tion name­ly: dig­i­tal­i­sa­tion and tech­nol­o­gy; agri­cul­ture with a fo­cus on tech­nol­o­gy or AgTech; green econ­o­my tran­si­tion; and trans­port and lo­gis­tics. Par­tic­i­pants will en­gage busi­ness lead­ers and in­vestors on projects and ini­tia­tives to help fast-track the Caribbean’s tran­si­tion to a green­er and SMART-er econ­o­my.