Shir­van Williams

The Ex­port Cen­tres Com­pa­ny Ltd (EC­CL) is be­ing re­brand­ed in the hope that more young en­tre­pre­neurs will go to the state en­ter­prise for train­ing to pro­duce high-qual­i­ty craft items. Min­is­ter of Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment Win­ston "Gyp­sy" Pe­ters launched the re­brand­ing ex­er­cise at the Hy­att Re­gency, Port-of-Spain, with the un­veil­ing of framed pho­tographs of the Mag­nif­i­cent Sev­en. The col­lec­tion was put to­geth­er in cel­e­bra­tion of the coun­try's 50th in­de­pen­dence. The frames were all made by crafts­man Ja­son Mc­Don­ald and the wood used was from the lum­ber yards of Lopinot Vil­lage.

"To­day, EC­CL is tru­ly achiev­ing its vi­sion to be a com­mu­ni­ty-based com­pa­ny that leads and fos­ters the craft in­dus­try to pro­mote eco­nom­ic di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion and na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment. I am al­so tak­ing this op­por­tu­ni­ty to an­nounce a new lo­go aimed at re­brand­ing Ex­port Cen­tres Com­pa­ny Ltd to the world," he said.

He said the new lo­go, which is red, white and black, was cho­sen be­cause we live in a mul­ti­cul­tur­al na­tion and he hoped that it would "weave its own in­di­vid­ual and unique thread, to fash­ion a rich and na­tion­al ta­pes­try." Pe­ters said that this ini­tia­tive would prove a pos­i­tive step for young ar­ti­sans.

"Through the train­ing of ar­ti­sans and the de­vel­op­ment of the lo­cal craft in­dus­try, mi­croen­tre­pre­neurs are now em­pow­ered to in­crease both their lo­cal and for­eign-ex­change earn­ing po­ten­tial," he said. He said that us­ing the Mag­nif­i­cent Sev­en as the 50th an­niver­sary line was a fit­ting trib­ute to the na­tion.

"The Mag­nif­i­cent Sev­en-though in­flu­enced by Ger­man, Scot­tish and French styles-have be­come dis­tinc­tive and iden­ti­fy­ing im­ages of Trinidad and To­ba­go over the past cen­tu­ry. This col­lec­tion is tru­ly rep­re­sen­ta­tive of our na­tion's her­itage," he said. Pe­ters said he hoped that the line would be shared with the world.

"The 50th an­niver­sary line is pitched at our lo­cal and re­gion­al mar­kets, but ad­di­tion­al­ly, we are mar­ket­ing this line to the Trinidad and To­ba­go di­as­po­ra, and to our in­ter­na­tion­al friends, col­lec­tors and in­ter­est­ed par­ties," he said. In three weeks, the min­istry and EC­CL will launch a na­tion­al pro­gramme fo­cused on train­ing in hand­i­crafts, he said.