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| Gen. Y workshop participants |
What’s been happening?
There has been a lot happening during December - all good positive stuff. Following is a brief overview of some key outcomes.
Gen Y Key Stakeholders Workshop
This half day workshop held at the Kapok Hotel on December 4th brought together close to 30 participants from the public, private and NGO sectors. The purpose was to get some form of commitment to help implement each of the six Best Bet propositions developed during the Gen. Y project. As a result, we now have at least a dozen more people to add to the pool we already had who have made a personal and/or organisational commitment to help with the implementation process.
Advanced Biotechnology Workshop
On December 4th participants in this workshop worked in groups to develop an action plan that would assist with the commercial realisation of the three Best Bet Business Investment Opportunity Cases developed in the Advanced Biotechnology Sector Foresight Project. One of the key outcomes from this session was that there is no real shortage of capability to do the research and development work required. What is the biggest hurdle with regards to commercial realisation is the limited pool of entrepreneurs available in T&T who would be prepared to back such commercialisation. It is clear that the only way this sector could effectively be developed is through a strong public private partnership which includes offshore stakeholders, particularly entrepreneurial operators and commercial organisations.
Advanced Fashion Sector Workshop
On December 11th a small group of key stakeholders with a strong interest in seeing the T&T fashion sector grow into a global business came together. After reviewing the four Best Bet Business Investment Propositions developed during the sector foresight project, the group identified one major opportunity area that had a high degree of relevance to all four - the need to develop a virtual fashion portal that would connect T&T with the world - and vice versa. The most exciting outcome is that a small group of interested persons have committed to join together and form a consortium to make this happen. They have also identified a number of ‘angel investors’ who may be interested in being involved. The initial consortium members plus some additional invited parties plan to meet on January 7th, 2009 to make things happen. Very positive!
Inter America Development Bank
A representative of NIHERST, along with representatives of seven other Caribbean countries, was invited to Miami to meet with senior executives in the Science and Technology section of the IDB to discuss ways in which the bank could better assist economic and social progress through S&T in the region. The exchange of views was very positive and is likely to lead to some exciting new initiatives for the Caribbean.
What does this mean for T&T?
The future of T&T is not likely to be in oil and gas long-term. It is in the rest of the economy - which at present is seriously under-developed. There is a real need to use the large creative talent pool that the country has to develop many more knowledge based businesses that provide greater value adding and the basis of a more resilient economy.
Further information: If you want to know more about the above contact Ian Ivey
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