00:0030% of the country's gross domestic product came from small and medium enterprises in 2024
00:06and more than 200,000 people gained employment compared to 180,000 employed pre-COVID-19 pandemic.
00:16It represents an 11% employment increase. That's according to president of the T&T Manufacturers
00:22Association, Dale Parson, who praises the Ex-Im Bank's support for manufacturers to purchase raw
00:28materials, saying it has helped in generating foreign exchange and it is monitored by the bank
00:35to ensure that only raw materials are purchased. In 2024, manufacturers repatriated over 30% of the
00:44funds allocated for raw material purchases. That means it resulted for every dollar we brought back
00:50in a dollar and 30 cents. 87% of Ex-Im Bank's manufacturer's funding is directed to SMEs. 87%.
01:01Meanwhile, Chief Executive Officer of the TTMA, Ramish Ramdean, says Forex is the backbone of the
01:08business sector and in order to obtain what is needed, exportation of goods and services is
01:13critical. He says the TTMA is doing all that it can, including providing training, forming partnerships
01:20and engaging in trade missions, with three planned for later this year to China, New York and Chile.
01:27However, Ramdean states that the environment in which the business sector operates is rife with
01:32challenges.
01:32At the factory gates in Trinidad and Tobago, we produce some of the best quality and standard
01:39of goods in the whole of the entire region. It's the inefficiencies, it's the bureaucracies,
01:46it's the ease of doing business challenges that allow us to be uncompetitive. We just continue
01:52to ask that the enabling environment is created by those in charge to create that enabling environment.
01:59Minister of Trade, Investment and Tourism Satya Kamma Maharad says the government is working
02:05on these issues as part of the economic transformation of the country.
02:09Minister of Trade, Investment and Tourism Satya Kamma Maharad says the government is focused on
02:11strengthening the country's export ecosystem from trade facilitation and logistics to market access,
02:19capacity building and digital innovation. These efforts are aimed at expanding the reach of
02:28made in TNT into high potential markets. We also modernize in regulatory systems to improve the ease of doing business.
02:39Maharad says an aggressive five-year plan is in place to increase TNT's export revenues.
02:46The TTMA's Trade and Investment Convention 2025, under the theme Business Beyond Borders,
02:53is paying specific attention to networking, with 350 booths available compared to 180 in the previous year.
03:02And over 3,900 buyers with over 350 B2B meetings arranged by the TTMA. The outcome of these meetings
03:12will bring buyers to us and contract manufacturing arrangements, service arrangements.
03:18The TTMA says since the TIC's inception in 1999, 1.2 billion U.S. dollars has been generated from trade
03:26on the flow, and there are bigger plans this year. The goal is to move that needle to 1.3 billion,
03:33an additional hundred million in trade to be generated. This is on the floor we're talking about
03:39over the next three days. Alicia Boucher, TV6 News.
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