The Port of Port-of-Spain.
by SHIRLEY BAHADUR
The National Services Exporters Portal was officially launched yesterday.
The initiative, which was championed by the T&T Coalition of Services Industries, along with the National Services Exporters Survey (NSES) 2022, is being viewed as a crucial tool in the development of services sector in the country.
“Together these two initiatives will contribute greatly to the overall development of the sector by alleviating some of our challenges as it relates to the collection of data in services, enhancing our ability to make data driven policy decisions, increasing competitiveness and guaranteeing a more resilient and sustainable industry,” said Minister of Trade Paula Gopee-Scoon at the launch of the portal at the Trinidad Hilton on Tuesday.
Gopee-Scoon said, “The Completion of the National Services Exporters Survey 2022 represents the second time in a three-year period that the TTCSI has been able to successfully capture the performance of Services in Trinidad and Tobago.”
TTCSI CEO Vashti Guyadeen said the portal could aid Trinidad and Tobago’s economic recovery as it can help the sector maximise its potential.
“The services sector can play a major role in diversification efforts. The sector employed over 85% of the labour force in 2017 and contributed 58% to real GDP in 2018 but only accounted for an estimated 8% of export earnings in 2017. The services sector therefore, has significant scope for growth in terms of export generation. Developments in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) have made it much easier to perform services for clients anywhere in the world. However, as the data shows, T&T has not been able to maximise service exports,” said Guyadeen.
She stressed however work would continuously be done on the portal to improve and enhance opportunities for the sector.
“This Portal is not static, it will be continuously upgraded and fine-tuned. There is still time for firms and services providers to register on the Portal. There is still much more work to be done. In order for firms to realise the benefits, it must become the go to site for the various categories of users mentioned before. This means that we must embark on a robust marketing drive,” said Guyadeen.
