Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, yes­ter­day met with a high-lev­el del­e­ga­tion of French busi­ness lead­ers and in­vestors as part of the Gov­ern­ment’s on­go­ing in­ter­na­tion­al in­vest­ment en­gage­ment strat­e­gy aimed at at­tract­ing ma­jor in­vest­ment, cre­at­ing jobs, and gen­er­at­ing eco­nom­ic growth in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

The meet­ing forms part of the Prime Min­is­ter’s broad­er vi­sion to repo­si­tion T&T as a pre­mier in­vest­ment hub in the Caribbean and Latin Amer­i­can re­gion, while restor­ing the na­tion’s pres­ence and cred­i­bil­i­ty on the glob­al stage.

Al­so present at the meet­ing were Min­is­ter of Works and In­fra­struc­ture, Jear­lean John, At­tor­ney Gen­er­al John Je­re­mie and Min­is­ter of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs, Sean Sobers.

The del­e­ga­tion, led by French Am­bas­sador Guil­laume Pierre, com­prised more than a dozen se­nior ex­ec­u­tives and rep­re­sen­ta­tives from a wide cross-sec­tion of in­dus­tries in­clud­ing avi­a­tion, en­er­gy, trans­port, con­struc­tion, agro-pro­cess­ing, lux­u­ry dis­tri­b­u­tion, mar­itime ser­vices, in­fra­struc­ture, man­u­fac­tur­ing, and tech­nol­o­gy.

Dis­cus­sions fo­cused on op­por­tu­ni­ties for in­vest­ment and part­ner­ship in sec­tors crit­i­cal to Trinidad and To­ba­go’s eco­nom­ic di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion and long-term de­vel­op­ment, in­clud­ing trans­port in­fra­struc­ture, avi­a­tion ser­vices, en­er­gy, man­u­fac­tur­ing, lo­gis­tics, con­struc­tion, food pro­duc­tion, and tech­nol­o­gy-dri­ven in­dus­tries.

Prime Min­is­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar reaf­firmed her Gov­ern­ment’s com­mit­ment to cre­at­ing a sta­ble, busi­ness-friend­ly en­vi­ron­ment that en­cour­ages in­vest­ment, in­no­va­tion, and sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic ex­pan­sion.

The Prime Min­is­ter not­ed that T&T’s strate­gic ge­o­graph­ic lo­ca­tion, skilled work­force, in­dus­tri­al ca­pac­i­ty, and strong re­gion­al con­nec­tiv­i­ty con­tin­ue to make the coun­try an at­trac­tive des­ti­na­tion for in­ter­na­tion­al in­vestors.

She fur­ther em­pha­sised that these en­gage­ments are part of a de­lib­er­ate and sus­tained ef­fort by the Gov­ern­ment to open new av­enues of eco­nom­ic co­op­er­a­tion with in­ter­na­tion­al part­ners while de­liv­er­ing tan­gi­ble ben­e­fits for the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go through in­creased em­ploy­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties, rev­enue gen­er­a­tion, and na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment.

The French del­e­ga­tion ex­pressed strong in­ter­est in T&T’s po­ten­tial as a gate­way to the wider Caribbean and South Amer­i­can mar­kets and wel­comed con­tin­ued di­a­logue and col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Gov­ern­ment.

The meet­ing rep­re­sent­ed an­oth­er im­por­tant step in strength­en­ing in­ter­na­tion­al busi­ness re­la­tions and ex­pand­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go’s role as a com­pet­i­tive and emerg­ing cen­tre for in­vest­ment, trade, and re­gion­al com­merce, ac­cord­ing to a state­ment on the Prime Min­is­ter's Face­book page.

Par­tic­i­pants of the French busi­ness del­e­ga­tion

1) Paul Au­ri­ol – Di­rec­tor Gen­er­al Caribbean & Cen­tral Amer­i­ca, Pana­ma Moët Hen­nessy Al­i­men­taire – Agroal­i­men­taire

2) Yor­go Her­nan­dez – Di­rec­tor, Amer­i­c­as, Pana­ma OCEA Mar­itime / Civ­il & De­fense – Mar­itime, Civ­il & De­fence

3) Guil­laume Lep­rince – Di­recteur Général, Pana­ma AIR­BUS – Avi­a­tion / Civ­il & De­fence

4) Re­naud Gor­ria – Di­recteur Général, Colom­bia PO­MA – Trans­port

5) Stephane Barc – Di­recteur Général, Trinidad and To­ba­go PEREN­CO – Oil & Gas

6) Flo­rent Avelia – Di­recteur, Be­lize SIL­VER OAKS Ser­vices – Ad­min­is­tra­tion, Ac­count­ing & Hu­man Re­sources

7) Ri­quette Bonne-Smith – Di­rec­trice, Saint Lu­cia BONNE BAGUETTE BAK­ERY LTD. – Agroal­i­men­taire / Bak­ery

8) Ka­tia Pe­nault – Di­rec­trice, Suri­name AMA­ZON SKY – Avi­a­tion

9) Jean François Gerin – CEO, Guyana AMA­ZON CARIBBEAN GUYANA – Agroal­i­men­taire

10) Christophe Sureau – Pres­i­dent, Guyana AMA­ZON CARIBBEAN GUYANA – Agroal­i­men­taire

11) Tim­o­th­ée Dele­barre – Di­rec­tor Cari­com, Ja­maica Vin­ci Cor­po­ra­tion – Con­struc­tion & Wa­ter Treat­ment

12) Rodolphe Mas­sal – Di­recteur Général, Mar­tinique AIR­LINES TECH­NI­CAL SUP­PORTS – Aero­nau­ti­cal Main­te­nance

13) Soiz­ic Duret-Mo­tard – Di­rec­trice Caribbean-Cari­com, Guade­loupe SO­PRE­MA CARAÏBES – Con­struc­tion & Ma­te­ri­als Trade

14) Sébastien De Ja­ham – Di­rec­tor Caribbean, Cen­tral Amer­i­ca & Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic

GBH – Dis­tri­b­u­tion / Au­to­mo­tive / In­dus­try