-
2 years ago
The India-Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce launched yesterday to a packed room at the Centre of Excellence. Political officials were aplenty, with 3 Ministers, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and at least one other Member of Parliament present.
To me, there was not enough hard facts given about how exactly the organisation would be helpful that gave value to me as a technology entrepreneur being there. There was no general networking (or even bathroom break) time given in the almost 3 hour schedule. Other than the period between the advertised and subsequent late start, the face time I had was only with those at my table, which in itself was valuable enough to make the event worth it for me, given that I sat with persons I met at eTeck’s seminar the previous week.
This seemed more a room for the older heads, or those with already established businesses looking to collectively gather their resources as a lobbying force. Some interesting points of note came up though.
Dev Gosine, who seemed to be a driving force behind the formation of ITTCIC, promoted several factors as to why to become a member of ITTCIC. According to him, membership in ITTCIC would give the member:
- Access to Technical Awareness and Training resources
- An initial stepping stone if one was an entrepreneur in the making, creating a growth path for future captains of India/T+T industry
- fertile soil to grow the economy by bringing Asian resources here, helping stem the traditional ‘brain drain’ effect that happens
- an open invitation to break bread with other members, and forge linkages there
- an instrument for the creation of wealth in Trinidad
The devil *will* be in the details on these points and I’d love to pick his brain further on the actual implementation details of these points that he gave.
According to one presenter, Dr Tim Shaw, chambers of commerce are de-facto think tanks. I’d love to meet the new ITTCIC thought leaders and share further insight into what sort of real, concrete objectives they’ve targetted to build their credibility as this type of true think tank.
The Indian High Commissioner to Trindiad and Tobago, Shri Malay Misra, who I gained much respect for his having not read from a prepared text, (the last person whose speaking presentation I attended to have done this so elegantly was Kwame Ture), made several notable points as well.
- Mauritius is the biggest investor in today’s India, because of a Double Taxation Avoidance agreement between their two countries. Trinidad and Tobago is a similar size, and already has a similar agreement in place, so there is no reason we could not become the same.
- Trinidad has 3 frameworks signed already with India for trade, and he would like to see a Preferential Trade Agreement with CARICOM appear on the horizon of discussion someday.
- A major challenge is not just the 22 hour flying time (not including stopovers) between India and Trinidad and Tobago but also the cost of the flight. Talks are ongoing with regional carriers to provide cheaper flights between the two countries.
All in all, it was very informative for me in getting to know the players in the formation of this new not-for-profit, non-political, “purely commercial” entity. I hope they live up to their motto of “Our only business is your success” and keep the confidence, trust and support of their membership with their future actions.
Following
