Economic Diversification Plans Move Forward with Foresighting Exercise

 25^th April, 2011:  The Ministry of Planning and the Economy announced that it has commenced a foresighting exercise.   “The goal of this exercise”, reported Senator the Honourable Mary King, Minister of Planning and the Economy, “is to identify those sectors in our national economy and the technologies that Trinidad and Tobago could exploit over the next fifteen to twenty years, in the creation of a sustainable economy”.  The exercise follows from the launch of the National Innovation System of Trinidad and Tobago (NISTT), a public consultation series and the recent installations of the Council for Innovation and Competitiveness (CIC) and the Economic Development Board (EDB).  Fundamental to the NISTT, the foresighting exercise began with the Ministry’s identification of eleven diverse areas within the local economy that have development potential.   Several locally-based stakeholders from these areas were invited to contribute to the process by sharing their 20-year vision for these areas. 

 

Mindful of the value in engaging experts from the diaspora as well, the Ministry is in the process of collaborating with Trinidad and Tobago’s embassies/foreign missions.  “Our Ambassadors and Consul- Generals are very eager to be involved in the process of identifying experts and have been very cooperative. We look forward to receiving a high level of meaningful inputs from the diaspora”, Minister King elaborated. She went on to explain that the Ministry’s Foresight Analysis Team will analyse and summarise all contributions for publishing on the Ministry’s website, facilitating further consultation.  Thereafter, the Ministry will direct the most valuable ideas and opportunities to the EDB for channeling to its proposed Centres of Excellence for development.    

 

 The EDB is to play an advisory and implementation role in the strategic management of the national economy, and will in collaboration with the CIC, provide critical support to Government in enhancing Trinidad and Tobago’s competitiveness, diversification and innovation support systems, building an economy focused on creating a culture of research and innovation. 

 

Minister King stressed that while the NISTT programme is an approved initiative of the Government, its success is largely dependent on buy-in from the national public, which has a fundamental role to play in shaping and charting the way forward. Cognisant of this, and in keeping with Government’s policy of public consultation, the Ministry of Planning and the Economy held a series of Panchayats ending in January 2011, which attracted approximately one thousand participants from Trinidad and Tobago. Members of the media, representatives from the Diplomatic Corps, international agencies, the banking sector, business community and academia, along with professionals from other diverse areas, farmers, innovators and potential entrepreneurs andparticipated, sharing their views on the national economy and the direction in which the Ministry is moving, as it relates to the NISTT. Recognising this and happy for the opportunity, some participants shared business ideas which they felt had the potential to positively impact our economy.