Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar met with a del­e­ga­tion of French busi­ness lead­ers and in­vestors on Thurs­day as the Gov­ern­ment push­es to at­tract for­eign in­vest­ment and ex­pand eco­nom­ic part­ner­ships.

The meet­ing brought to­geth­er se­nior rep­re­sen­ta­tives from in­dus­tries in­clud­ing avi­a­tion, en­er­gy, trans­port, con­struc­tion, man­u­fac­tur­ing, tech­nol­o­gy, agro-pro­cess­ing, and mar­itime ser­vices.

French Am­bas­sador Guil­laume Pierre led the del­e­ga­tion.

Al­so at­tend­ing were Works and In­fra­struc­ture Min­is­ter Jear­lean John, At­tor­ney Gen­er­al John Je­re­mie, and For­eign and CARI­COM Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers.

Dis­cus­sions fo­cused on in­vest­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties in trans­port in­fra­struc­ture, avi­a­tion, man­u­fac­tur­ing, lo­gis­tics, con­struc­tion, food pro­duc­tion, en­er­gy, and tech­nol­o­gy.

In a re­lease this af­ter­noon, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the Gov­ern­ment fo­cus­es on cre­at­ing a busi­ness en­vi­ron­ment that sup­ports in­vest­ment and eco­nom­ic growth.

She point­ed to Trinidad and To­ba­go’s ge­o­graph­ic lo­ca­tion, in­dus­tri­al base, and re­gion­al con­nec­tiv­i­ty as ad­van­tages for in­ter­na­tion­al in­vestors look­ing to ex­pand in­to Caribbean and South Amer­i­can mar­kets.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar added that the meet­ings form part of the Gov­ern­ment’s wider strat­e­gy to strength­en in­ter­na­tion­al busi­ness ties and gen­er­ate jobs and rev­enue through new in­vest­ment.

The French del­e­ga­tion ex­pressed in­ter­est in T&T as a gate­way to re­gion­al mar­kets and sig­nalled a will­ing­ness to con­tin­ue dis­cus­sions with the Gov­ern­ment on pos­si­ble ar­eas of col­lab­o­ra­tion.

The meet­ing comes as the Gov­ern­ment in­ten­si­fies ef­forts to repo­si­tion T&T as a re­gion­al in­vest­ment and trade hub amid on­go­ing eco­nom­ic di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion plans.