Jun 2015 Financial News

T&T takes half of region’s FDI

Jun 25, 2015

Half of the foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into the Caribbean find their way to T&T. “This is because of T&T’s petrochemical sector  and also the country is known for its insurance and banking sector, so most of the FDI go towards insurance, banking, petrochemical and value added,” said Tobias Schulze Frenking, lecturer, MBA International  Trade, Logistics and Procurement at the Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business.

Speaking at the launch of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (Unctad) 2015 World Investment Report yesterday, Frenking said foreign investors usually evaluate the political stability of a country.

“Political stability is one of the major drivers of foreign direct investment inflows and certainly a change of government can cause some disruption in that stability. So there may be some investors opposed to investing just before a political change may occur. There may be some disruptions but I would not say that the political climate is the only factor that contributes,” he said, adding that macroeconomic indicators also play an important role in investments.

“The monetary policy of the T&T Central Bank is one of the main drivers of macro economic policies at the national level. With regard to interest rates it may crowd out some investors locally but as we talk about FDI, that should not have any major impact on the investments,” Frenking said.
Videsh Maharaj, senior investment specialist at the Ministry of Trade, said from 2011 to 2014 T&T attracted on average US$2 billion.

Osei Wright-Alexis, senior investor sourcing officer at invesTT, quoting from the Unctad 2015 Report, said globally FDI declined by 15 per cent to US$1.2 trillion last year. He attributed this to the fragility of the world economy.

Source:
Rapheal John-Lall
Trinidad Guardian
Thursday June 25, 2015

http://www.guardian.co.tt/business/2015-06-25/tt%E2%80%88takes-half-region%E2%80%99s-fdi