India to deepen economic relations with Trinidad and Tobago

India’s Minister of External Affairs, S. Jaishankar and High Commissioner of India to Trinidad and Tobago, Parader Singh Rajpurohit, have taken significant steps, in collaboration with the authorities of Trinidad and Tobago, in their quest to deepen the economic and investment related ties between the two nations, with a key focus on improving trade relations.

The Minister for Trade and Industry Paula Gopee-Scoon, received the High Commissioner of India, Parader Singh Rajpurohit, who was instrumental in the development of the concept and has put in motion the plan for a business council to be established between the two countries.

The meeting between Paula Gopee-Scoon and Parader Singh Rajpurohit cemented the possibility of a business council being set up between the two nations, along with an assessment of the Bilateral Investment Treaty, as well as other possible forms of collaboration in the future.

Trinidad and Tobago is also looking to highlight the long standing ties it has with India in sports and cultural exchange and use this as a platform to establish better commercial opportunities which will benefit both nations greatly.

The Minister for Trade and Industry emphasized the importance of his interactions with Indian representatives and was quick to paint a positive picture of what people can expect from a collaborative effort between these two nations.

The relationship has seen significant progress in recent times and seems to be flourishing as the nations continue to act as useful partners to each other in many aspects. An example of this is was witnessed in August of 2023 when India signed an MoU with Trinidad and Tobago.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) facilitates the sharing of INDIA STACK. The collection of digital goods or public benefits and open API’s is extremely useful in facilitating payment, identity and data services at a significantly magnified scale.

India has become one of the prime examples of how nations can make a shift towards digital payment methods and undertake a transformation in the data sector. Thus, by partnering with India, Trinidad and Tobago is making an attempt to transition into a more modern system for payments and the collection and processing of data.

This process will be supplemented with training programmes, exchange of best practices, capacity building, exchange of public officials and experts, and development of pilot or demo solutions, among other things.

These efforts are expected to bring Trinidad and Tobago up to speed with the best-in-class online payment and data management facilities, which are subsequently meant to bring ease to payments at both the small and the large scale, as well as allow for rapid processing and transfer of data.

By pursuing these advancements, Trinidad and Tobago will also have the ability to gain access to better facilities in terms of trade and exchange with many other nations whose economies are deeply entrenched in these new systems.

This will open Trinidad and Tobago to a significant degree to world economic and trade markets in a manner that the nation has not witnessed previously.