For decades, the eco­nom­ic nar­ra­tive of T&T has been dom­i­nat­ed by the ebb and flow of the en­er­gy sec­tor. While oil and gas have long been the ti­tans of rev­enue, a qui­et gi­ant has steadi­ly grown to form the true back­bone of the na­tion­al econ­o­my. As we look to­ward the da­ta from 2023 through 2025, a new re­al­i­ty is crys­tal clear: the ser­vices sec­tor is not mere­ly a sup­port­ing play­er; it is the largest com­po­nent of the T&T econ­o­my and its work­force.

Stand­ing at the helm of this mas­sive eco­nom­ic en­gine is the T&T Coali­tion of Ser­vices In­dus­tries (TTC­SI). As the na­tion­al um­brel­la or­gan­i­sa­tion for the ser­vices sec­tor, the TTC­SI is cur­rent­ly spear­head­ing a strate­gic trans­for­ma­tion de­signed to re­shape the na­tion’s eco­nom­ic fu­ture.

With am­bi­tious tar­gets set for 2026, the coali­tion is call­ing for a “quan­tum leap”—a shift that promis­es to move lo­cal busi­ness­es from do­mes­tic con­fine­ment to the com­pet­i­tive in­ter­na­tion­al stage. Hence, we are hap­py to in­tro­duce our chief trade and tech­ni­cal of­fi­cer, Bri­an Benoit who is com­pe­tent­ly qual­i­tied to sup­port the Board of the TTC­SI in this new thrust.

To un­der­stand the grav­i­ty of the TTC­SI’s mis­sion, one must first ap­pre­ci­ate the sheer scale of the sec­tor we rep­re­sent. Ac­cord­ing to re­cent eco­nom­ic da­ta, the ser­vices sec­tor is the pri­ma­ry em­ploy­er in the na­tion, pro­vid­ing liveli­hoods to ap­prox­i­mate­ly 70 per cent of the to­tal work­force. Fur­ther­more, the sec­tor con­tributes more than 60 per cent of T&T’s Gross Do­mes­tic Prod­uct (GDP).

While the en­er­gy sec­tor dom­i­nates the head­lines in terms of fis­cal rev­enue, it is the ser­vices sec­tor that dri­ves the dai­ly rhythm of the coun­try. It is the en­gine that keeps the pop­u­la­tion mov­ing, fed, ed­u­cat­ed, and trans­act­ing. This dom­i­nance makes the health and ex­pan­sion of the ser­vices in­dus­try a mat­ter of na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty and eco­nom­ic sta­bil­i­ty.

“We are look­ing at a land­scape where the re­silience of the econ­o­my de­pends heav­i­ly on the di­ver­si­ty and strength of ser­vices,” notes in­dus­try analy­sis. “When en­er­gy prices fluc­tu­ate, it is the ser­vices sec­tor—re­tail, fi­nance, ed­u­ca­tion—that pro­vides the cush­ion for the pop­u­la­tion.”

How­ev­er, size alone does not guar­an­tee fu­ture suc­cess. Recog­nis­ing that the lo­cal mar­ket has nat­ur­al lim­its, the TTC­SI is piv­ot­ing its fo­cus to­ward ex­port and ex­ter­nal com­pet­i­tive­ness.

A di­verse ecosys­tem, the “ser­vices sec­tor” is of­ten treat­ed as a uni­fied rock, but the TTC­SI high­lights it as a high­ly di­verse and in­tri­cate ecosys­tem. It en­com­pass­es a wide ar­ray of sub-sec­tors, each with its own unique chal­lenges and op­por­tu­ni­ties. These in­clude fi­nan­cial ser­vices, which han­dle the flow of cap­i­tal; whole­sale and re­tail trade, which en­sures the dis­tri­b­u­tion of goods; and the crit­i­cal lo­gis­tics net­works of trans­port, stor­age, and com­mu­ni­ca­tion that bind the is­lands to­geth­er.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, the sec­tor in­cludes vi­tal so­cial com­po­nents such as ed­u­ca­tion and gov­ern­ment op­er­a­tions. Be­cause this sec­tor touch­es every as­pect of life in T&T, the TTC­SI’s man­date is ex­pan­sive. It is in this broad con­text that we have recog­nised the need for evo­lu­tion. The tra­di­tion­al mod­el of busi­ness as­so­ci­a­tion is no longer suf­fi­cient to meet the de­mands of a glob­alised dig­i­tal econ­o­my.

In a strate­gic move to bol­ster the sec­tor’s agili­ty and reach, we have ex­pand­ed our bond to in­clude in­de­pen­dent pro­fes­sion­als. This shift ac­knowl­edges a chang­ing glob­al work­force where the gig econ­o­my, con­sul­tan­cy, and spe­cialised free­lance work are be­com­ing in­creas­ing­ly preva­lent.

His­tor­i­cal­ly, trade as­so­ci­a­tions fo­cused pri­mar­i­ly on large cor­po­rate en­ti­ties. How­ev­er, the mod­ern ser­vices econ­o­my is dri­ven by in­di­vid­u­als—IT con­sul­tants, dig­i­tal mar­keters, cre­ative artists, and spe­cialised en­gi­neers—who may not op­er­ate with­in large cor­po­rate walls but pos­sess sig­nif­i­cant ex­port po­ten­tial.

By bring­ing these in­de­pen­dent pro­fes­sion­als un­der our um­brel­la, the TTC­SI is of­fer­ing them ac­cess to ca­pac­i­ty build­ing re­sources that were pre­vi­ous­ly out of reach.

The goal is to equip these in­di­vid­u­als with the tools they need to trans­form their so­lo ven­tures in­to glob­al­ly com­pet­i­tive en­ter­pris­es. This in­te­gra­tion cre­ates a uni­fied front, en­sur­ing that the voice of the free­lancer is just as pow­er­ful as that of the multi­na­tion­al cor­po­ra­tion in the halls of pol­i­cy-mak­ing.

Mov­ing from the do­mes­tic mar­ket to the in­ter­na­tion­al are­na is not mere­ly a mat­ter of lo­gis­tics; it is a mat­ter of stan­dards. The TTC­SI em­pha­sis­es that to com­pete glob­al­ly, one must be com­mit­ted to a strong gov­er­nance sys­tem.

In in­ter­na­tion­al trade, trust is a cur­ren­cy. For­eign buy­ers and part­ners are in­creas­ing­ly risk-averse, de­mand­ing high lev­els of trans­paren­cy and ac­count­abil­i­ty from their sup­pli­ers. Un­der­stand­ing the im­por­tance of codes of ethics and every­day pro­fes­sion­al busi­ness stan­dards is no longer op­tion­al—it is a pre­req­ui­site for en­try.

We are po­si­tion­ing our­selves as the en­forcer and ed­u­ca­tor of these stan­dards. By ad­vo­cat­ing for clean com­pe­ti­tion, the TTC­SI aims to weed out prac­tices that might tar­nish the na­tion’s rep­u­ta­tion abroad. A cul­ture of strong or­gan­i­sa­tion­al skills and un­wa­ver­ing com­mit­ment is be­ing cham­pi­oned as the hall­mark of a T&T ser­vice provider.

“Clean com­pe­ti­tion en­sures that the best busi­ness­es win based on mer­it and qual­i­ty, rather than con­nec­tions or cut­ting cor­ners,” the TTC­SI ad­vo­cates. “This is the on­ly way we can build a sus­tain­able brand for T&T in the glob­al mar­ket.”

The over­ar­ch­ing theme of the TTC­SI’s cur­rent strat­e­gy is the “quan­tum leap” sched­uled for 2026. This is not pre­sent­ed mere­ly as a slo­gan, but as a tan­gi­ble shift in op­er­a­tional mind­set.

The “quan­tum leap” in­volves mov­ing busi­ness trade from with­in the walls of T&T to the in­ter­na­tion­al mar­ket. For too long, many lo­cal ser­vice providers have been con­fined to the do­mes­tic pond, fight­ing for a share of a lim­it­ed mar­ket. The TTC­SI is po­si­tion­ing it­self to sup­port or­gan­i­sa­tions to jump in­to the ocean of glob­al trade.

This tran­si­tion re­quires ca­pac­i­ty build­ing. It in­volves train­ing pro­fes­sion­als on in­ter­na­tion­al con­tracts, un­der­stand­ing cross-bor­der tax­a­tion, nav­i­gat­ing dig­i­tal trade plat­forms, and ad­her­ing to in­ter­na­tion­al qual­i­ty stan­dards like ISO cer­ti­fi­ca­tions. The TTC­SI is poised to fa­cil­i­tate this ed­u­ca­tion, act­ing as a bridge be­tween lo­cal tal­ent and glob­al de­mand.

The vi­sion for 2026 is bold, but the foun­da­tion is laid in the re­al­i­ty of 2023-2025 da­ta. With 70 per cent of the work­force re­ly­ing on this sec­tor, the stakes could not be high­er. The suc­cess of the TTC­SI’s mis­sion could sig­nal a turn­ing point for the T&T econ­o­my—a move away from over-re­liance on fi­nite re­sources and to­ward a knowl­edge-based, ser­vice-dri­ven fu­ture.

By em­brac­ing in­de­pen­dent pro­fes­sion­als, en­forc­ing strict codes of ethics, and fos­ter­ing a cul­ture of or­gan­i­sa­tion­al ex­cel­lence, we are lay­ing the ground­work for a new era of eco­nom­ic pros­per­i­ty.

The mes­sage to the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty is clear: the walls are com­ing down. The op­por­tu­ni­ty to trade in­ter­na­tion­al­ly is here, but it re­quires a com­mit­ment to gov­er­nance, skill, part­ner­ships and al­liances and clean com­pe­ti­tion.

With the TTC­SI lead­ing the charge, the ser­vices sec­tor is ready to take its quan­tum leap, car­ry­ing the econ­o­my of T&T in­to a pros­per­ous and di­ver­si­fied fu­ture.