One billion dollars is the targeted goal for investment and business opportunities from the Commonwealth Business Forum (CBF).
Mohan Kaul, director general of the Commonwealth Business Council for the Commonwealth Business Forum, made the disclosure at a media conference at the International Financial Centre in Port of Spain yesterday.
’This business event has helped to get investment into the country where CHOGM is organised,’ he said.
’We have already fixed about 50 meetings with investors on various projects-oil and gas projects, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) projects and agriculture. We hope during the Forum we will have meetings which will result in partnerships in the future. (One billion dollars) That’s our aim and that’s what we have set as out target.’
Minister of Trade and Industry Mariano Browne said around 893 business people have confirmed their participation in the Forum.
He said: ’Approximately 390 (participants) come from Trinidad and Tobago and the other 500 are from different parts of the world from the Commonwealth as well as from the Americas and other parts of Europe. We have quite a wide selection.’
The Forum promotes practices and policies for the enhancement of global trade and investment. It provides new opportunities for business networking and partnerships, drawing on the Commonwealth’s comparative advantage in areas such as services, information and communications technology, banking and financial services, manufacturing, agriculture and natural resources.
The last two CBFs were held in Malta (2005) and Uganda (2007), and each constituted the biggest business conferences ever held in those countries.
The CBF in Trinidad and Tobago will be held on the cruise liner, Serenade of the Seas, from November 23-26.
Confirmed speakers include Prof Joseph E Stiglitz, the 2001 Nobel Prize Winner for Economics; President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni; UN-Habitat executive director, Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka and Dr Anthony Hayward, chief executive, BP Group.
