GEISHA KOW­LESSAR-ALON­ZO

Se­nior Re­porter

geisha.kow­lessar@guardian.co.tt

Min­is­ter of Fi­nance Dav­en­dranath Tan­coo has em­pha­sised that for­ti­fy­ing T&T’s cap­i­tal mar­ket is the cor­ner­stone of a sus­tain­able re­sponse to the coun­try’s press­ing fis­cal and de­mo­graph­ic chal­lenges—chief among them, the loom­ing strain on the Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Sys­tem (NIS).

He cau­tioned that with­out in­ter­ven­tion, the NIS fund could be ex­haust­ed by 2033 or 2034. Rather than re­ly­ing on in­creased Gov­ern­ment spend­ing or sub­si­dies, the min­is­ter ad­vo­cat­ed for a shift to­ward greater cit­i­zen in­vest­ment, wealth gen­er­a­tion and in­clu­sive eco­nom­ic par­tic­i­pa­tion.

A vi­brant cap­i­tal mar­ket, he ar­gued, em­pow­ers in­di­vid­u­als to se­cure their own fi­nan­cial fu­tures through re­tire­ment plan­ning and in­vest­ment, fos­ter­ing re­silience and re­duc­ing de­pen­dence on state sup­port as the pop­u­la­tion ages.

He made the com­ments at the T&T Stock Ex­change Cap­i­tal Mar­kets Con­fer­ence 2025, themed “Fu­ture Proof­ing Cap­i­tal Mar­kets in an Era of Trans­for­ma­tion,” which took place at the Hy­att Re­gency yes­ter­day.

In giv­ing in­sights about the coun­try’s ag­ing pop­u­la­tion, Tan­coo said, “In 1980, on­ly about five per cent of our cit­i­zens were aged six­ty-five or old­er. To­day, that num­ber stands at over 11 per cent.

“By the year 2060, it is ex­pect­ed to more than dou­ble to 26 per cent ... In the year 2000, we had about ten work­ing-age peo­ple for every se­nior cit­i­zen. By 2030 —just five years from now—that ra­tio will fall to four to one. By 2060, it will be two to one.

“Two work­ers sup­port­ing every re­tiree. That is not a dis­tant con­cern. That is a chal­lenge un­fold­ing right be­fore us.”

Em­pha­sis­ing the an­swer can­not be more Gov­ern­ment spend­ing, Tan­coo said more cit­i­zen in­vest­ment means more wealth cre­ation and more par­tic­i­pa­tion in the econ­o­my.

“A strong and dy­nam­ic cap­i­tal mar­ket is at the heart of the trans­for­ma­tion that we en­vi­sion for Trinidad and To­ba­go. It is one of the most pow­er­ful mech­a­nisms we have for mo­bil­is­ing sav­ings, di­rect­ing in­vest­ment, and gen­er­at­ing wealth.

“A mod­ern, deep and liq­uid stock mar­ket pro­vides the foun­da­tion for busi­ness ex­pan­sion, in­no­va­tion, and long-term eco­nom­ic growth,” he said.

The min­is­ter added that it gives cit­i­zens a di­rect stake in na­tion­al progress, al­lows in­di­vid­u­als to save, to in­vest, and to build their own per­son­al wealth and re­tire­ment se­cu­ri­ty, in­de­pen­dent of Gov­ern­ment, as well as chan­nels do­mes­tic sav­ings in­to pro­duc­tive ven­tures that cre­ate jobs and stim­u­late growth.

“Most im­por­tant­ly, it al­lows or­di­nary cit­i­zens to share di­rect­ly in the wealth of their na­tion,” Tan­coo added.

He al­so cit­ed that around the world, coun­tries that de­vel­oped strong cap­i­tal mar­kets ear­ly have cre­at­ed wealth for their cit­i­zens and built buffers against ag­ing pop­u­la­tions and fis­cal pres­sure.

Not­ing that T&T has some of these el­e­ments, Tan­coo urged that they must be strength­ened and ex­pand­ed.

T&T Stock Ex­change CEO Eva Mitchell, who al­so spoke, out­lined new plans aimed at deep­en­ing mar­ket par­tic­i­pa­tion, en­hanc­ing dig­i­tal in­fra­struc­ture and align­ing the Caribbean’s cap­i­tal mar­kets with glob­al best prac­tices.

Mitchell an­nounced sev­er­al for­ward-look­ing de­vel­op­ments, be­gin­ning with the lo­cal stock ex­change’s ap­pli­ca­tion to ex­tend trad­ing hours—a strate­gic move to sup­port the tran­si­tion to a T+1 set­tle­ment cy­cle by 2026.

“This will not on­ly in­crease our com­pet­i­tive­ness but bring us clos­er to the stan­dards of the world’s most ad­vanced ex­changes,” she said.

An­oth­er ma­jor mile­stone is the cre­ation of a spot mar­ket for de­riv­a­tives trad­ing—the first of its kind in the Caribbean.

With draft rules un­der re­view by the TTSE, this mar­ket promis­es to un­lock new in­vest­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties and deep­en liq­uid­i­ty across the re­gion.

To fur­ther sup­port liq­uid­i­ty, Mitchell re­vealed that the TTSE is ex­plor­ing a mar­ket-mak­er frame­work. Two mod­els are un­der con­sid­er­a­tion: a cen­tralised, cap­i­talised en­ti­ty or a de­cen­tralised ap­proach where com­pa­nies make mar­kets in their own shares.

“Ei­ther way, it’s a big step to­ward a more dy­nam­ic and re­silient mar­ket,” she not­ed.