This speech was delivered by Senator Mariano Browne, Minister of Trade and Industry of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago to a Commonwealth Caribbean Business Media workshop convened by the Commonwealth Secretariat in Port of Spain on June 3, 2009. It outlines several ideas, namely that Trinidad and Tobago, and several other CARICOM nations, are well-positioned to weather the current economic crisis. For example,
In this state of flux, the CARICOM region and more specifically larger Member States such as Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago are in a somewhat better position to weather this financial storm, particularly because the structure of our financial centres within the Anglophone Caribbean is not exposed to the threats of the derivatives market, which was one of the initial causes provoking the global financial crisis.
Whilst broadly similar in terms of climate and geography, CARICOM and the wider Caribbean encompass a range of diversity and economic opportunity and investment possibilities, from the sparsely populated but large land reserves of Belize, Suriname and Guyana to the more densely populated OECS countries and the middle income nations, such as the Bahamas in the north.
With direct reference to Trinidad and Tobago, our country is in a relatively stronger position to cope with the challenges in this environment as we continue to capitalize and build our economy, firstly on the energy sector, and also through diversifying the services and manufacturing sectors.
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While many have expressed concerns about closer ties with Commonwealth nations in the Caribbean, with good reason in many cases, there certainly appears to be strong potential in the Caribbean. We should be watching the situation here closely; they may be nations of interest one day soon.
