Trinidad: An investment policy

A public policy paper entitled “A Green Paper on the T&T Investment Policy” by the Ministry of Trade and Industry has been put out for public comment. The paper says and I quote: “…oil and gas resources are finite. Consequently the critical issue in respect of sustainable economic development becomes how to increase GDP when oil and gas productions begin to decrease. The solution lies in the sustainable development of the non-energy sector and as a pre-requisite the attraction of investment into this sector.”

The paper posits that both local and foreign investments are necessary and defines a set of strategies intended to promote these various investments. The former includes identification and development of investment projects, reservation of a number of services for locals, provision of training to entrepreneurs while the latter also includes the identification of investment projects and the provision of opportunities linked to firms that are already established in T&T.


The paper also sees foreign direct investment (FDI) as playing a major role in facilitating and accelerating the strategic shift for T&T from a developing to a developed country. It then lists the advantages of FDI which include the provision of a level of financial investment required to be internationally competitive, the expertise, technology and capital which foreign firms provide and are required to succeed in the market place.

The paper then went on to name the strengths that T&T possesses that can make us into the preferred choice of non-energy investors. These include strategic geographic location, educated work force, low energy costs, access to an array of markets, foreign exchange stability, protection of IP, good infrastructure etc.

The question, however, is can we really design a public investment policy in isolation, particularly for foreign direct investment, given certain national assets, like say, Singapore or Ireland, so as to create an economy? If we can do so, why has not the Singaporean model been successfully replicated the world over even in places with the same assets–strategic location and an educated work force?

Trinidad Express