The Ministry of Land and Legal Affairs is moving to digitise land services, making it easier to do business and unlock more investment opportunities.
The initiative took a significant step forward on Tuesday with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Minister of Land and Legal Affairs Saddam Hosein and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative Ugo Blanco.
Minister Hosein explained that the proposed system will allow users to digitally access key information, including the registered owner, the size of the property, valuation details and more.
“Trinidad and Tobago is a map. Everybody knows what it looks like. If I am interested in a parcel, I take my mouse, my cursor, I zoom into the parcel, I click on the parcel, when I open the parcel, it must tell me Karen Bridgewater is the owner of this land, the land measures 5,000 square feet. We get that information from the Surveys and Mapping Division. If I want to do a transaction with the land, I have to pay taxes, time duty, and so on. The Valuation Division, their baseline figures already uploaded, so you have an average of what you will pay to the State in terms of those transfers and so on.”
Minister Hosein explained that this modernisation is critical to attracting investment, as investors need timely information on the location, value and permissions associated with available land.
“If I can’t tell them where the land is, if I can’t tell them what the value of the land is, if I can’t tell them about the permissions of the land, we will get nowhere with the investors. So this is the backbone of one of our thrusts in terms of keeping our doors open to the global community so that we will now have foreign currencies flowing back into our shores, we will have investors back in Trinidad and Tobago, and we will take back our place in the Caribbean as the largest, fastest-growing Caribbean country in this part of the hemisphere.”
Meanwhile, UNDP Resident Representative Ugo Blanco stressed that the system must be built around trust, transparency and inclusion.
“People should be able to understand what’s required, track their progress, and trust the information which decisions are made. Businesses should experience greater predictability, and public officers should have the tools and information they need to perform effectively. Any decision-maker should have access to reliable data, and we were discussing with Mr Hosein how to support that planning, that investment, those policies. So trust, transparency, and inclusion must remain at the heart of this exercise.”
With this system, Minister of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs Sean Sobers noted a reduction in costs and time, while supporting the government’s efforts to restore confidence and strengthen fiscal stability.
“The stronger systems, greater transparency, and reduced administrative costs envisaged under this initiative will support the government’s objective of restoring confidence and fiscal stability. Of particular significance is the participation of the United Nations Development Programme in this collaborative undertaking. Trinidad and Tobago has long valued its partnership with the United Nations system and the support it has provided toward national development.”
According to Minister Hosein, the signing of the MOU marks the start of a broader effort to modernise land-related services and create a more efficient and transparent system for citizens, businesses and investors.