RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Pres­i­dent of the Greater San Fer­nan­do Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce (GS­FCC), Ki­ran Singh says South­ern­ers will soon ben­e­fit from trade op­por­tu­ni­ties be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and France span­ning agri­cul­tur­al tech­nol­o­gy, man­u­fac­tur­ing, tourism, ex­port part­ner­ships and even cul­tur­al ex­change pro­grammes.

Yes­ter­day, French Am­bas­sador Guil­laume Pierre vis­it­ed San Fer­nan­do af­ter be­ing in­vit­ed to the city by Singh.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Singh said dur­ing the vis­it, Pierre met with lo­cal busi­ness own­ers to dis­cuss op­por­tu­ni­ties, show­ing par­tic­u­lar in­ter­est in lo­cal­ly made goods, the man­u­fac­tur­ing sec­tor, and tourism ini­tia­tives.

He said they al­so ex­plored po­ten­tial for yacht vis­i­tors, mar­itime ser­vices, and en­er­gy co­op­er­a­tion, in­clud­ing projects like green hy­dro­gen.

Singh high­light­ed that the south of­fered the space, tal­ent, and in­fra­struc­ture to sup­port French part­ner­ships and show­case eco­tourism with San Fer­nan­do Hill as a back­drop.

En­tre­pre­neurs on High Street en­gaged di­rect­ly with the am­bas­sador, ex­press­ing en­thu­si­asm about France as a new mar­ket. Plans for stu­dent ex­change pro­grammes, cul­tur­al col­lab­o­ra­tions such as steel­pan ex­ports, and fu­ture trade mis­sions are ex­pect­ed to fol­low.

“The in­ten­tion is that a trade mis­sion will be com­ing to Mar­tinique ear­ly in the new year, and we will be en­gag­ing with that con­tin­gent to ex­plore busi­ness op­por­tu­ni­ties,” Singh said.

He de­scribed Pierre as “quite im­pressed” with the range of com­merce in down­town San Fer­nan­do.

“He was im­pressed with the type of com­merce he saw and ex­pe­ri­enced through a walk on our High Street to­day, and we look for­ward to fu­ture op­por­tu­ni­ties with the French and their peo­ple.”

Singh said the am­bas­sador ex­pressed par­tic­u­lar in­ter­est in lo­cal­ly made goods and the man­u­fac­tur­ing and tourism sec­tors.

“He did like the lo­cal sou­venirs, the re­tail we of­fer. He’s in­ter­est­ed in the man­u­fac­tur­ing sec­tor and, of course, tourism,” Singh not­ed.

Agri­cul­ture and en­er­gy co­op­er­a­tion al­so fea­tured promi­nent­ly in the dis­cus­sion.

“We spoke about de­vel­op­ing more of the agri­cul­tur­al sec­tor. We know the French are in­volved with the green hy­dro­gen project and that will bring pro­duc­tive ben­e­fits for the econ­o­my as a whole as we seek to di­ver­si­fy while pur­su­ing en­er­gy con­tracts.”

Singh said the south of the is­land of­fered strong po­ten­tial for French part­ner­ships.

“We have the space, we have the tal­ent, we have the in­fra­struc­ture that can be eas­i­ly de­vel­oped and we have safe wa­ter har­bour. Our fa­cil­i­ties are here, we have the fish­eries, and our peo­ple are ready and will­ing to show­case the eco­tourism back­drop with San Fer­nan­do Hill as the back­drop of the south­ern city.”

Ac­cord­ing to Singh, sev­er­al High Street en­tre­pre­neurs en­gaged di­rect­ly with the am­bas­sador and were en­thu­si­as­tic about France as a new mar­ket.

“He met with sev­er­al busi­ness peo­ple on High Street, and they were all pos­i­tive. He’s ex­cit­ed about re­turn­ing to San Fer­nan­do and we were very ex­cit­ed to host him.”

Be­yond trade, cul­tur­al col­lab­o­ra­tion al­so emerged as a key talk­ing point.

“We have the leather craft, sou­venirs, the steel­pan—which he was in­ter­est­ed in. We re­mind­ed him of Joshua Ro­ge­lio’s ac­com­plish­ments. We would like to ex­port the steel­pan to France and have an acad­e­my to teach the in­stru­ment here in San Fer­nan­do.”

Singh said such ini­tia­tives could sup­port stu­dent ex­change pro­grammes and help gen­er­ate for­eign ex­change.

He not­ed that the GS­FCC ex­pect­ed fol­low-up meet­ings ahead of the 2025 trade mis­sion, with San Fer­nan­do busi­ness­es prepar­ing prod­uct lines and ser­vices suit­able for the French mar­ket.