Executive Chairman of the Coosal Group of Companies, Dr. Sieunarine Coosal, is advocating for this country to partner with India.
Speaking at the launch of the Trinidad and Tobago–India Business Federation (TTIBF) on Sunday, he said Trinidad and Tobago has a lot to gain by partnering with India, which is projected to become the world’s fourth-largest economy, with a gross domestic product of more than US$4 trillion.
“Through this partnership we can digitise government services, expand financial inclusion, deploy drone technology for precision agriculture. We can move from green technology consumers to technology adapters and one day exporters.”
He added that the private sector will also benefit from the linkage.
“Indian investment can establish manufacturing facilities here, pharmaceuticals, agro-processing, light assembly that serves not only our domestic market but the entire CARICOM region. Our double taxation treaties, our English-speaking workforce, our stable financial system. These are not incidental advantages, they are the foundation of a new export economy.”
India’s High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Pradeep Singh Rajpurohit, also endorsed the move to expand the existing bilateral agreements.
“We feel that there is an immense potential to further substantiate our age-old partnership into a robust economic partnership, a robust trade partnership which is still currently at a modest level of a few hundred million US dollars. And as I said here on other occasions, we are a large country. We talk more in billions than in millions, and trade should be more in terms of billions.”