Author: OBG Admin

Stuart Tait-Regional Head of Commercial Banking-Asia Pacific

Trinidad and Tobago’s energy sector is set to reach previous production levels through new technologies and contracts

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Over the last two decades Trinidad and Tobago’s natural gas boom has overshadowed crude oil output, which has been slowly declining. Gas production is now leading the race. In terms of energy equivalency, for every unit of oil currently produced there are eight units of gas extracted. However, the government and a number of independent oil companies are confident that output is now set to increase. Regaining Ground While gas production surged ahead, crude oil output began to decline after 2006, and by 2010 it

Xi Jinping-President of China

Trinidad and Tobago’s compliance with a global transparency initiative looks set to draw more business

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In January 2015 Clare Short, a former UK minister and current chair of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), a global lobby group, announced in Port of Spain that Trinidad and Tobago had become fully compliant with all of the group’s reporting requirements. It was a significant moment for T&T’s oil and gas sector, and for its attempts to achieve high standards in the management of its natural resources. Such a badge of good governance stands to make T&T a more attractive destination for foreign

Chaim Zach-Managing Director and CEO-Agric International Technology and Trade; Kabiru Rabiu-Group Executive Director-BUA Group; and Aliyu Abbati Abdulhameed-Managing Director

New plans offer more opportunities for domestic processing in Trinidad and Tobago

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Gas production and processing has grown in importance in recent years and is now undisputedly at the centre of Trinidad and Tobago’s economy, accounting for almost 90% of the energy sector. Key upstream gas producers include BP T&T (BPTT), BG Group and EOG Resources Trinidad. The state-owned National Gas Company (NGC) operates in the midstream sector as the sole buyer and seller of gas. It buys from the upstream and distributes to the downstream. The proportion that is not exported as liquefied natural gas (LNG) is sold to the local petrochemicals sector, power generators and other consumers. Most gas production (57%) is exported in the

Pham Hong Hai-CEO-HSBC Vietnam

Incentives offered to multinationals to set up local service centres in Trinidad and Tobago

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In 2008 the government established the Trinidad and Tobago International Financial Centre (TTIFC) as a specialist agency to promote the development of the country as an international financial centre. Previously, this work had been undertaken by InvesTT, which promotes inward foreign direct investment across the economy. (https://easydmarc.com) The strategies being pursued by the TTIFC include Financial Institutions Support Services (FINeSS), which seeks to provide special incentives for foreign financial institutions that wish to establish service centres for their core middle- or back-office processes. FINeSS will also work with specialist business process outsourcing (BPO) providers. Varun Maharaj, CEO of the TTIFC, identified a number of general

Nhon Luc Ly-CEO-AIA Myanmar; Son Nguyen-Country President-Chubb Life Insurance Myanmar; Daw Zarchi Tin-CEO

Trinidad and Tobago’s government-backed banks are focused on main policy objectives

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As indicated by the World Economic Forum’s “Global Competitiveness Report 2014-15”, Trinidad and Tobago has a number of attributes that are conducive to the development of financial services. Although the country was the 89th-most-competitive out of 144 assessed globally, T&T was ranked 38th for its macroeconomic environment, 52nd for infrastructure and financial market development, 69th for business sophistication and 77th for higher education and training. Strong Centre Accounting for about 16% of GDP, the broadly defined financial services sector of T&T (including insurance and real estate services) is the second-largest part of the economy after the petroleum industry, which generates about 38% of value added.

Daniel Asare-Kyei-CEO-Esoko; Curtis Vanderpuije-CEO-ExpressPay; and Daniel Marfo-General Manager-Zipline Ghana

Trinidad and Tobago’s stock exchange operates as more of a custodian than a bourse

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The country’s stock exchange was established in October 1981 under the provisions of the Securities Industry Act. Since 1995 the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange (TTSE) and its members have been regulated by the T&T Securities and Exchange Commission, in accordance with the Securities Industry Act. The 1995 act was eventually repealed at the end of 2012 and replaced with the Securities Act 2012. The TTSE’s Electronic Trading System replaced a manual open outcry system in March 2005. According to the TTSE’s 2014 annual report, there were 31 equity securities listed, including several companies that operate across the region but which are based outside of

Nhon Luc Ly-CEO-AIA Myanmar; Son Nguyen-Country President-Chubb Life Insurance Myanmar; Daw Zarchi Tin-CEO

Figuring out how to make the most of Trinidad and Tobago’s Carnival festivities

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The country’s annual Carnival celebration is a unique and distinctive event, and as such has the potential to play an even greater role than it already does in the local tourism industry. National Geographic magazine lists the Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago as one of the world’s “Top 10 Pre-Lenten Celebrations”, noting that the custom was started in the late 1700s by the French as a masquerade ball for the island elite, but subsequently grew into an “egalitarian street spectacle” and, given the country’s ethnic mix, has become a “multicultural extravaganza”. The celebrations consist of various elements culminating in the Monday and Tuesday before Ash

Nhon Luc Ly-CEO-AIA Myanmar; Son Nguyen-Country President-Chubb Life Insurance Myanmar; Daw Zarchi Tin-CEO

A proposed southern loop could help boost the number of cruise ship visitors to Trinidad and Tobago

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The contribution of cruise ship visits to the wider tourism industry is subject to some debate. It is generally agreed that Trinidad and Tobago receives fewer cruise ship visits than other parts of the Caribbean. Some propose policies to correct this and try to attract more ships. Others argue that cruise ship tourism – described as bringing in large numbers of visitors with a low per capita spend – should simply be given less priority within the overall mix of different types of tourism. Cruise Arrivals Up in 2014 According to figures from the Port Authority of T&T, cruise ship passenger arrivals in the country,

Pham Hong Hai-CEO-HSBC Vietnam

Conditions could become tougher for owners of office space in Trinidad and Tobago

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As of mid-2014, there were four class A office buildings under construction in Port of Spain, with a total of 250,000 sq feet of usable space, according to Terra Caribbean, a leading real estate agency. At the time, Terra Caribbean argued that this was a positive development, given a shortage of high-quality office space in the city. The shortage was the result of the government’s slowness to make use of all space available at its Waterfront complex. As a result of this lack of supply, numerous government ministries and agencies have been occupying low-rise class B and class C office space in and around Port

Daniel Asare-Kyei-CEO-Esoko; Curtis Vanderpuije-CEO-ExpressPay; and Daniel Marfo-General Manager-Zipline Ghana

Trinidad and Tobago’s new procurement law aims to prevent collusion and corruption

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The construction industry, along with other trade groups, has campaigned for years to reform procurement procedures, as a way of combatting corruption, ensuring greater transparency and achieving greater value for money. The long process of political discussions on the subject came to a conclusion in December 2014, when both houses of parliament passed the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property Bill. Better Value Attempts to introduce anti-corruption and procurement legislation have been made since 1997, so the approval of the law was a significant landmark. Bhoendradatt Tewarie, the head of the Ministry of Planning and Sustainable Development, welcomed the law as an effective way