What makes Trinidad and Tobago an exciting place to invest?

◊ Trinidad and Tobago is the largest and one of the most developed economies in the Caribbean. Basic infrastructure, it is reiterated again and again by those we have interviewed, is well-established within the country, particularly in terms of technology and telecommunications. The twin-island nation is ideal as a regional base, being markedly richer and more advanced than its neighbours.

◊ The country has utilised its oil wealth to improve a number of public services, and has invested heavily in education. Its well-educated, English-speaking population stands out in a region where other big players are Spanish or French-speaking, and often underdeveloped. For this reason Trinidad and Tobago, Anglophone and the largest Caribbean economy, plays an essential and leading role within the CARICOM group of countries.

◊ Placed in the southern part of the Caribbean, just 15 kilometres from the coast of Venezuela, the islands are tremendously well-placed from a strategic perspective, primed to form a link between South and North America. Expansion of the Panama Canal and the opening up of rival trade routes in the region are creating opportunities for the development of a transhipment hub, and Trinidad and Tobago is better placed than many to take advantage of this. The level of traffic passing by the country is already massive, and is still waiting to be leveraged to the country (and business’s) advantage.

◊ Having generated its wealth through oil and gas, Trinidad and Tobago has not put as much into developing its tourism sector as other islands in the Caribbean. As Anna Ghent of Ventrin Petroleum points out, such success in this industry has made it almost lazy in developing others. But the islands remain Caribbean islands, with all the sun, sea and sand that that entails. As far as tourism is concerned, there is much still to be developed and taken advantage of in Trinidad and Tobago, and it only awaits the right developer to do so.

Oil and gas

Trinidad and Tobago has been involved in oil and gas production for over one hundred years, with cumulative production totalling over three billion barrels of oil in that time. The country is the most significant producer of oil and natural gas in the Caribbean, but since the early 90s the sector has gone from being largely oil dominated to mostly natural gas based. In 2013, crude oil reserves were estimated at 728 million barrels, while 3P natural gas reserves were at 25.24 trillion cubic feet. Buoyed by significant recent discoveries by ExxonMobil off the coast of Guyana, investment by the industry in exploration within the region has received a huge boost of late.

Telecommunications

Total revenues for the country’s telecommunications sector in 2016 dropped slightly to TT$5.6 billion, which as a percentage of GDP equates to 3.6%. Despite this drop of 0.3%, encouraging signs were seen in the area of mobile internet services, which grew by almost 10% to over 700,000 subscriptions. Fixed internet subscriptions saw a corresponding reduction, following global trends. It is clear that what Dr. Ronald Walcott of TSTT said in his interview with us is true: The industry is undergoing exciting change in which mobile and cloud connectivity will come to the fore, and the sector must adapt and keep up to date with this change if Trinidad and Tobago is to thrive.

Health

Trinidad and Tobago, like a large portion of the world’s countries, offers free universal healthcare to its citizens, but this isn’t to say that all services are government-run. As we learnt in our interview with Global Medical Response (GMR), the government outsources its ambulance service to this company, and is beginning to look at further involvement from the private sector following the success of this venture. The government, we also learnt, has sought a private sector partner to manage a new hospital in central Trinidad, and the success of these private-public partnerships will only open more doors for investment into the health sector on the islands.

Finance

The financial system in Trinidad and Tobago plays an important role in terms of economic development. Port of Spain is a regional centre for financial services, with two of the Caribbean’s largest banks headquartered in the city. The industry accounts for 12% of the country’s GDP – impressive given the dominance of oil and gas in the Trinidadian landscape – and is well-developed, thanks to an established energy and petrochemical industry and a strong manufacturing base. Eight commercial banks manage 123 branches within the sector, with four of these banks listed on the country’s stock exchange.