New­ly ap­point­ed com­mer­cial of­fi­cer for the Min­istry of Trade and In­dus­try Dar­ryl Smith is thank­ful for the op­por­tu­ni­ty to once again serve his coun­try.

“I am very blessed, thank­ful to the Min­istry for giv­ing me the op­por­tu­ni­ty. It was a rig­or­ous in­ter­view­ing process, a cou­ple in­ter­views. Well, I think the Min­istry has put a good team to­geth­er. Young, bright peo­ple who have a lot of ex­pe­ri­ence in trade. And I’m just up to the chal­lenge as al­ways,” said Smith at the Trade and In­vest­ment Con­ven­tion at the Cen­tre of Ex­cel­lence in Ma­coya on Fri­day.

He how­ev­er down­played the prospect of the role as a re­turn to the lime­light. Smith had pre­vi­ous­ly served as Min­is­ter of Sport from Sep­tem­ber 2015 to April 2018, and had been Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Diego Mar­tin Cen­tral from 2015 to 2020.

He was ter­mi­nat­ed frm Cab­i­net in April 2018.

“I don’t think the po­si­tion is one of for the lime­light. I think it is there to pro­vide any back­ground sup­port to all the busi­ness sec­tor of Trinidad and To­ba­go that is look­ing in­to ex­port. I know it’s a big as­pect and part of the man­date from the gov­ern­ment for vi­sion 2030 and al­so the re­cov­ery process from the COVID-19,’ said Smith.

He con­tin­ued, “I’m just do­ing my part in the back­ground to sup­port these man­u­fac­tur­ers and peo­ple from out­side in North Amer­i­ca, USA and Cana­da to in­vest in Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

Smith con­firmed he was un­der con­tract for two years. He ex­plained he was prepar­ing for a few ex­port shows and mis­sions in the near fu­ture with fo­cus on a food and bev­er­age trade mis­sion in Sep­tem­ber.