A trade mission organized by the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce is in the country. The representatives are here to connect with local businesses particularly in the food and beverage, construction, tourism, manufacturing, and professional services sectors. Their goal is to strengthen its trade ties between Belize and Trinidad and Tobago. Jomarie Lanza was at the Fort George Tree House and here's her report.
They'll be in Belize for the next few days, aiming to strengthen trade ties between the two countries. The Trinidad & Tobago Chamber Of Industry & Commerce signed an agreement of perpetuity with the Belize Chamber Of Commerce and Belize Coalition of Services industries as part of their trade action plan. The president for Trinidad and Tobago's Chamber Of industry & Commerce told us they want to to connect with key stakeholders, buyers, and distributors in Belize:
Sonji Pierre-Chase, President, Trinidad & Tobago Chamber Of industry & Commerce
"So today Is the first day of our three day training and investment mission in Belize and today was our opening ceremony where the delegates had the opportunity to meet with the ministry and the official parts of the administration that deal with training and investment. Following the opening ceremony we are going to go into our business to business meetings where through our counterparts the Belize chamber of commerce and industry will be able to partner linkages with business persons who will be paired with our delegates and further discussions on where we see trade and investment opportunities. What we are looking for as an outcome of this mission is to solidify the CARICOM single market and economy where we can forge alliances and promote regional and economic trade between islands and within CARICOM because we really believe as your minister said that there is greater resilience in shared and collaborations between the countries within CARICOM and we really think that these alliances today will give us that resilience that we require to deal with global changes and shocks and forge our community which is the CARICOM community to be a strong economic partner in the global environment."
Their CEO also shared that their main trade interests lie in agriculture and the orange economy.
Vashti Guyadeen, CEO, Trinidad & Tobago Chamber Of Industry & Commerce
"The idea behind this is to deepen relationships between CARICOM countries in terms of accelerating the pace of the CSME given that everything that is happening globally so there are opportunities that we have identified within the agriculture sector, definitely within the creative and Orange Economy so those are sustainable projects that we are looking forward to and we have identified firms members on our side that not only can expand into the Belizean market but also form partnerships."
"One of the big things that is going to happen today is we are going to be signing what we call a trade and business alliance agreement with two of your business support organisations and that is the Belize Coalition of Services industries and the Belize Chamber of Commerce. So what does this mean? It's not an agreement that will sit on a shelf. The difference here is to depend on relations so that we have an action plan, a structured action plan over the course of the next three to five years in common mutual areas of focus, sharing of market intelligence, building basically a community of exporters."
The Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance also attended today's event in support of this partnership between the CARICOM nations for trade.
Christopher Coye, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance
"First that I am aware of. I'm not sure that there was any before, but. But it's a good start."
"I think it was referred to earlier in the presentation. I think we exported. I think the number was around 97 million dollars last year to Trinidad and we import quite a bit less. But the opportunity is there for increased trade among both countries."
