SHAR­LENE RAM­PER­SAD

The es­tab­lish­ment of a Tech In­vest­ment Fund and a Tech Pro­mo­tions and De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny will be part of the Gov­ern­ment’s new thrust in­to cre­at­ing a dig­i­tal econ­o­my.

This, ac­cord­ing to Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert, as he read the 2020/2021 Bud­get Pre­sen­ta­tion in Par­lia­ment to­day.

Im­bert said:

“It will be avail­able to all vi­able tech star­tups and new tech busi­ness­es. It is ex­pect­ed the new dig­i­tal econ­o­my will trans­form all in­dus­tries and be vast­ly dif­fer­ent from the old econ­o­my where growth was dri­ven by the mech­a­niza­tion of pro­duc­tion.”

He said the Min­istry of Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion and Dig­i­tal Trans­for­ma­tion will play a ma­jor role in this trans­for­ma­tion.

He said the Min­istry will be charged with pro­vid­ing free in­ter­net ac­cess for all of T&T, with spe­cial fo­cus on schools and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions, and with cre­at­ing E-Iden­ti­ties for all cit­i­zens.

He said the cre­ation of E-Iden­ti­ties will help to cre­ate a dig­i­tal pub­lic ser­vice.

Im­bert said come De­cem­ber, tax­es on all de­vices such as cell­phones will be re­moved.