A special event will be held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Trinidad and Tobago Monday through Friday next week (November 8-11). This special event is dubbed “A new period of transformation for the region” and relates to the Caribbean Investment Forum which focuses on building a smarter and greener Caribbean.
This is an event that aims to attract more than 450 speakers. In other words, the Forum seeks to explore business opportunities across the Caribbean by connecting key regional decision makers, innovators and entrepreneurs with the world’s most influential investors.
We support this initiative. Not only is this needed in the region, as such an initiative can go a long way in rejuvenating and resuscitating a Caribbean economy that badly needs a breath of fresh air as it continues to battle COVID-19. and the issues surrounding wars and rumors of wars ravaging the world today.
The Caribbean brand was built on its vacation attractions which alone are not enough to create a comfortable life for its approximately 44 million inhabitants (World Atlas, Worldometers) and its growing inhabitants.
Yes, the area has long kept an identity as a tourist destination, but that doesn’t mean it can’t branch out and be known around the world for something other than its white sandy beaches, its cruising, its pina coladas, its reggae and dance hall music, its calypso and soca music, steel pan music, beautiful wedding decorations, etc.
Sustainability is the key word here and anything else that would sustain and sustain the Caribbean economy, breathe more life into it and make it more than the playground of the rich should be something that all political leaders in the Caribbean should to research.
The sustainable development of island economies should be at the forefront of all Caribbean governments, hence the need for them to ensure that this next investment forum rocks, not only by hosting the event, but by ensuring that the final objectives of the event are achieved.
Investment opportunities are everywhere in the Caribbean and what better way to identify those opportunities than by the people of the Caribbean themselves. The development of Caribbean brand assets beyond the travel brand bodes well for the Caribbean in light of an onslaught on the travel industry as COVID-19 has shown in 2020 and onwards. here.
The Caribbean is ripe for this type of investment forum as it has yet to fully exploit its renewable energy potential, its agricultural potential or even its pharmaceutical potential with its wide range of herbal medicines.
The trick, in our view, is to turn the high-level discussion that this investment forum will generate into a vehicle that will grow or drive the growth and development of Caribbean economies.
The Caribbean economy, like the global economy, is beginning to emerge from what could be described as a deep economic and financial crisis. The Caribbean now faces a very different global investment landscape. Therefore, the upcoming investment forum in Trinidad should provide crucial answers on how investors from developing countries can deal with this new landscape.
We hope that the forum can deliver the development that the Caribbean desperately needs and that public and private actors will ensure that economic development meets the challenge set by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals to lift the millions the poorest of extreme poverty.
After all, we will be turning our heads in the mud if forum attendees decided to secure greater sustainable investments in the wealthy. Genuine sustainable investment should be in the poor, for the poor and with the poor.
