Today, the Trinidad and Tobago Coalition of Services Industries Collaborated with the Caribbean Export Development Agency to hold the 2021 Caribbean Lawrence Placide Award ceremony.
This year, the award was given to 2 persons: a Belizean and a Trinidadian. This award celebrates the development of the services sector nationally and regionally.
But it's not only a celebration; the objective is also to build the competencies of services exporters in the Caribbean, creating a cadre of service providers and firms that are positioned to expand their businesses.
This year, the award was opened up to the entire Caribbean, and in her first-ever entry, Belizean Farah Guerrero of Salient Group LLP was selected as one of the awardees.
Prime Minister John Briceno was the keynote speaker for today's ceremony, and he took a small victory lap on behalf of the Belizean awardee. Here is an excerpt of his remarks.
Hon. John Briceno - Prime Minister
"I wish to congratulate the Trinidad and Tobago Coalition of Services Industries for extending this annual award to nationals of the CARIFORUM States. The people of Belize welcomed this move and your leadership in bringing the regional coalitions together. However, I am extremely excited to see that upon opening this auspicious award to the entire Caribbean; a Belizean entrepreneur is the 2021 winner. Many of our Belizean entrepreneurs have committed to the unique training opportunity that the Caribbean Export Development Agency, with funding from the European Union, has brought to the region with the Services Go Global Program. Ms. Farah Guerrero and our stars across the Caribbean have applied themselves to the level of creating this opportunity for themselves, their businesses, and ultimately our respective countries by committing themselves to embrace this opportunity brought to them by the Belize Coalition of Service Providers. Through their unique offerings of new goods and services, our entrepreneurs have broken away from tradition and indirectly supported their own freedom by deciding to expand their service delivery globally. Overall, this improves our small countries' quality of life, greater morale, and economic freedom. Entrepreneurs can change the way we live and work. When successful, their revolutions will improve our standard of living."
The two winners are Farah Guerrero of Belize and Alvin Morton of Trinidad.
They will receive coaching from Caribbean Export to enter into the markets identified in their winning export plans.
