As Trinidad and To­ba­go (T&T) con­tin­ues the search for an­swers to its di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion chal­lenge, a vi­tal source of in­vest­ment re­mains un­tapped. The time has come for this coun­try to mean­ing­ful­ly en­gage with its glob­al di­as­po­ra com­mu­ni­ty and to see this group as more than a group of pa­tri­ots that pro­vide re­mit­tances or who un­der­take acts of phil­an­thropy.

Ac­cord­ing to the 2024 Unit­ed Na­tions De­part­ment of Eco­nom­ic and So­cial Af­fairs re­port, over 320,000 cit­i­zens of T&T live abroad, pri­mar­i­ly in the USA, Cana­da, and the UK. When one adds to the list, de­scen­dants born abroad, the num­ber in­creas­es sig­nif­i­cant­ly of­fer­ing a po­ten­tial­ly valu­able source of in­vest­ment cap­i­tal, ex­per­tise, in­ter­na­tion­al net­works and mar­ket ac­cess. The chal­lenge is to con­vert this po­ten­tial in­to pro­duc­tive in­vest­ment that cre­ates busi­ness­es, jobs, and sus­tain­able wealth.

On Oc­to­ber 16, 2026, this writer had the op­por­tu­ni­ty to present at The Trin­ba­go Di­as­po­ra Out­reach Net­work’s (TDON) third Bi­en­ni­al Di­as­po­ra Con­fer­ence, held un­der the theme “Mo­bil­is­ing Di­as­po­ra Cap­i­tal, Com­pas­sion and Cul­ture for Na­tion­al De­vel­op­ment.” I was par­tic­u­lar­ly pleased with the range of per­ti­nent is­sues ad­dressed and how this net­work is cre­at­ing a plat­form aimed at con­vert­ing di­as­po­ra wealth to pro­duc­tive in­vest­ment. The chal­lenge for T&T is to move be­yond di­as­po­ra en­gage­ment to build­ing a di­as­po­ra ecosys­tem that makes in­vest­ing in T&T at­trac­tive and com­mer­cial­ly vi­able.

Di­as­po­ra cap­i­tal as a strate­gic de­vel­op­ment re­source

In T&T, as it is for many small-is­land de­vel­op­ing states, the con­tri­bu­tion of the di­as­po­ra is of­ten viewed through re­mit­tances and con­tri­bu­tions to char­i­ta­ble caus­es. While these are im­por­tant, the flow of di­as­po­ra cap­i­tal for eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment, and more so di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion of the do­mes­tic econ­o­my, re­quires an ex­pand­ed fo­cus. The di­as­po­ra com­mu­ni­ty in­cludes pro­fes­sion­als from var­i­ous dis­ci­plines, en­tre­pre­neurs, in­vestors, and oth­er per­sons who pos­sess fi­nan­cial re­sources, spe­cial­ist knowl­edge, skills and con­nec­tions to in­ter­na­tion­al mar­kets.

Over the years, suc­ces­sive T&T gov­ern­ments have recog­nised, in a lim­it­ed way, the val­ue of the di­as­po­ra com­mu­ni­ty. More re­cent­ly, through the Min­istry of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs’ di­as­po­ra reg­is­tra­tion ini­tia­tive and the de­vel­op­ment of a Na­tion­al Di­as­po­ra Pol­i­cy, a more struc­tured ap­proach for en­gage­ment is be­ing con­sid­ered. In­vest­ment, busi­ness de­vel­op­ment, knowl­edge trans­fer and stronger re­la­tion­ships with na­tion­als abroad have been iden­ti­fied as key in the en­gage­ment process.

En­gage­ment alone is how­ev­er not suf­fi­cient for mean­ing­ful im­pact on the di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion agen­da if it is not aligned to na­tion­al pri­or­i­ties, Ac­cord­ing­ly, go­ing for­ward, en­gage­ment ef­forts must com­mu­ni­cate and po­si­tion di­as­po­ra cap­i­tal be­yond a dis­play of emo­tion­al at­tach­ment to one of the di­as­po­ra cap­i­tal­is­ing on cred­i­ble in­vest­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties while con­tribut­ing to na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment.

Fi­nanc­ing di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion through en­tre­pre­neur­ship

Di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion re­quires the de­vel­op­ment of com­pet­i­tive busi­ness­es in sec­tors such as agri­cul­ture, agro-pro­cess­ing, man­u­fac­tur­ing, tourism, cre­ative in­dus­tries, and tech­nol­o­gy-en­abled ser­vices. Fur­ther, in the re­cent bud­get state­ment, the Gov­ern­ment once again iden­ti­fied di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion and SME de­vel­op­ment among its pri­or­i­ties. How­ev­er as has been said in dif­fer­ent quar­ters, pol­i­cy in­ten­tions must be matched by fi­nanc­ing mech­a­nisms that make it eas­i­er for en­tre­pre­neurs to es­tab­lish busi­ness­es, be­come com­pet­i­tive, grow, scale and ac­cess over­seas mar­kets.

Di­as­po­ra in­vestors can ad­dress the na­tion­al fund­ing gap in the en­tre­pre­neur­ship ecosys­tem through the pro­vi­sion of seed, ear­ly-stage and growth cap­i­tal, busi­ness part­ner­ships, and ac­cess to over­seas mar­kets.

Any at­tempt at mo­bil­is­ing di­as­po­ra cap­i­tal must de­ter­mine what are the most ap­pro­pri­ate in­stru­ments to be used based on ac­tiv­i­ty and de­sired out­come. Di­as­po­ra cap­i­tal for en­tre­pre­neur­ial ac­tiv­i­ties can be through ven­ture cap­i­tal and eq­ui­ty funds that may be sec­tor based or project based. A suc­cess­ful di­as­po­ra in­vest­ment strat­e­gy must of­fer dif­fer­ent in­stru­ments suit­ed to the needs and growth po­ten­tial of dif­fer­ent en­ter­pris­es.

Di­as­po­ra cap­i­tal in­flows - chal­lenges and con­straints

Pa­tri­o­tism alone will not lead to sig­nif­i­cant di­as­po­ra cap­i­tal in­flows. The lo­cal en­vi­ron­ment must pro­vide a feel­ing of con­fi­dence that di­as­po­ra funds will be used to sup­port the na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment agen­da. The sys­tems through which in­vest­ments are eval­u­at­ed, ex­e­cut­ed and mon­i­tored should with­stand in­vest­ment-grade scruti­ny:

Trust- Di­as­po­ra in­vestors must feel con­fi­dent about the lev­el of in­tegri­ty of pro­posed op­por­tu­ni­ties, the team be­hind the ven­tures and the in­sti­tu­tions that over­see the op­er­a­tions. Trans­par­ent com­mu­ni­ca­tion and good gov­er­nance make it more at­trac­tive to in­vest;

The pro­file of in­vest­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties- The de­mand for di­as­po­ra cap­i­tal must be re­al de­mand. Busi­ness ven­tures pre­sent­ed to the di­as­po­ra com­mu­ni­ty should be in­vest­ment-ready. In­vest­ments in busi­ness­es with ques­tion­able own­er­ship struc­tures, weak man­age­ment and lim­it­ed po­ten­tial for growth can lead to failed in­vest­ments. Fail­ure re­tards sub­se­quent ef­forts to at­tract cap­i­tal;

Pol­i­cy and reg­u­la­to­ry con­straints- Di­as­po­ra in­vestors, de­spite their pa­tri­o­tism, are no dif­fer­ent from oth­er in­vestors who val­ue the ease of do­ing busi­ness. Ad­min­is­tra­tive de­lays, reg­u­la­to­ry un­cer­tain­ty, dif­fi­cul­ties nav­i­gat­ing ap­provals and lim­it­ed op­por­tu­ni­ties for share­hold­ers' ex­it or to repa­tri­ate re­turns, de­crease the pos­si­bil­i­ty of at­tract­ing di­as­po­ra cap­i­tal; and

Com­pet­i­tive­ness- The in­crease in cross-bor­der in­vest­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties means that mem­bers of the di­as­po­ra com­mu­ni­ty have ac­cess to glob­al in­vest­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties as well as op­por­tu­ni­ties in their coun­tries of res­i­dence. While pa­tri­o­tism may be a trig­ger for in­ter­est in T&T in­vest­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties, the fi­nal de­ci­sion will be based on what is best aligned with the in­di­vid­ual’s in­vest­ment ap­petite.

Build­ing a na­tion­al di­as­po­ra in­vest­ment strat­e­gy

As T&T moves for­ward with a suit­able di­as­po­ra in­vest­ment strat­e­gy, con­sid­er­a­tion should be giv­en to the fol­low­ing, in­ter alia;

* Un­der­take re­search on di­as­po­ra funds in oth­er coun­tries es­pe­cial­ly small economies with a sim­i­lar pro­file as T&T;

* Es­tab­lish a co­or­di­nat­ed di­as­po­ra in­vest­ment plat­form that con­nects reg­is­tered di­as­po­ra mem­bers with lo­cal en­ter­pris­es and projects. The plat­form should pro­vide in­for­ma­tion, con­nect stake­hold­ers, and guide in­vestors; and

* Cre­ate a pro­fes­sion­al­ly man­aged di­as­po­ra in­vest­ment fa­cil­i­ty through which di­as­po­ra in­vestors could in­vest along­side lo­cal pri­vate in­vestors. Good gov­er­nance and trans­paren­cy must be in­cor­po­rat­ed to en­hance con­fi­dence in the fa­cil­i­ty.

Un­nec­es­sary ad­min­is­tra­tive bar­ri­ers must be re­moved at pre, dur­ing and post-in­vest­ment stages. The State should be a fa­cil­i­ta­tor for a pri­mar­i­ly pri­vate-sec­tor dri­ven ini­tia­tive though well-struc­tured PPPs are en­cour­aged;

There must be on­go­ing as­sess­ment of ini­tia­tives and the use of met­rics to de­ter­mine ap­pro­pri­ate­ness and so­cio-eco­nom­ic im­pact.

Turn­ing con­nec­tions in­to eco­nom­ic trans­for­ma­tion

The di­as­po­ra rep­re­sents more than a pool of po­ten­tial in­vestors. It is a source of knowl­edge, en­tre­pre­neur­ial ex­pe­ri­ence and in­ter­na­tion­al re­la­tion­ships that can strength­en the com­pet­i­tive­ness of lo­cal en­ter­pris­es.

The ob­jec­tive of a di­as­po­ra mo­bil­i­sa­tion strat­e­gy for di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion through en­tre­pre­neur­ial de­vel­op­ment must not be viewed as a re­mit­tance strat­e­gy. Rather it should pro­vide a mean­ing­ful av­enue to chan­nel cap­i­tal in­to pro­duc­tive en­ter­pris­es that ex­pand the coun­try’s eco­nom­ic base, gen­er­ate for­eign ex­change, and cre­ate op­por­tu­ni­ties for fu­ture gen­er­a­tions.

Dr Ju­dith Mark is a busi­ness strat­e­gy con­sul­tant, ed­u­ca­tor, aca­d­e­m­ic coach who ad­vo­cates for in­no­va­tion-dri­ven lead­er­ship. Email her at: ju­dith­m­mark@gmail.com