T&T Chamber delegation visit yields more than 100 business meetings
A recent two-day business-to-business encounter between a delegation headed by the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce and a number of local companies seems set to pave the way for the longanticipated strengthening of business and commercial ties between the private sectors of the two Caricom countries, Stabroek Business has been informed.
Earlier this week the business delegation from Port of Spain, comprising 24 companies in a number of sectors, wound down engagements with local companies and state entities charged with facilitating investment enquiries ahead of Guyana’s much-anticipated exploitation of its oil and gas resources, expected to commence in earnest in 2020.
On Wednesday Stabroek Business secured a briefing with former president of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) and Chief Executive Officer of the business coaching entity, ActionCoach, Vishnu Doerga, whose company had been contracted by the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber to facilitate the business-to-business engagements. He disclosed that over the two days 24 private companies under the umbrella of the T&T Chamber had met with local business entities and state agencies including the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest). They engaged in discourse aimed at beginning the process of fostering and building collaborative business relationships to promote the mutual growth and development of the Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago economies through increased trade and commerce.
The encounters, according to Doerga, yielded more than 100 bilateral meetings. “Companies in Guyana have long wanted these kinds of encounters and they now know what the businesses in Trinidad and Tobago want. There is a sense that both sides are keen on business-tobusiness matching,” he said.
The business delegation from Port of Spain, according to Doerga, comprised representatives of companies in the construction, real estate, business support, credit rating, education, manufacturing and transport and shipping sectors, all of which are keen to explore the possibility of building partnerships with counterpart companies in Guyana.
Bilateral encounters aside, Doerga told Stabroek Business that the visiting T&T delegation benefited from site visits and encounters with the Ministry of Business, the Guyana National Bureau of Standards and the GCCI.
While Doerga declined to discuss the details of outcomes or follow-up initiatives likely to arise out of the two days of discourse he said that some of the interface could well witness the infusion of “new investment and new capital” into the local business environment, allowing companies to upgrade the levels of their operations