TTMA launches landmark trade mission to Guyana, Suriname

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Man­u­fac­tur­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTMA) has em­barked on a dual-coun­try Trade Mis­sion to Guyana and Suri­name, mark­ing one of its most am­bi­tious re­gion­al ini­tia­tives to date. Run­ning from June 8–14, the mis­sion un­der­scores TTMA’s com­mit­ment to strength­en­ing re­gion­al trade, in­vest­ment, and col­lab­o­ra­tion op­por­tu­ni­ties for lo­cal man­u­fac­tur­ers and ser­vice providers.

Led by TTMA Pres­i­dent Emil Ramkissoon, the del­e­ga­tion in­cludes 38 com­pa­nies and 58 par­tic­i­pants, mak­ing it one of the largest trade mis­sions ever or­ga­nized by the As­so­ci­a­tion. The pro­gram fea­tures busi­ness-to-busi­ness meet­ings, sem­i­nars, net­work­ing events, and ex­plorato­ry dis­cus­sions aimed at fos­ter­ing new com­mer­cial part­ner­ships and gath­er­ing mar­ket in­tel­li­gence.

Ramkissoon em­pha­sized the strate­gic im­por­tance of the ini­tia­tive, not­ing that Guyana and Suri­name have be­come in­creas­ing­ly at­trac­tive mar­kets for TTMA mem­bers. “Over the past sev­er­al years, both Guyana and Suri­name have emerged as key mar­kets of in­ter­est for TTMA mem­bers seek­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties for mar­ket en­try, ex­pan­sion of ex­ist­ing client re­la­tion­ships, in­vest­ment in high-growth sec­tors, and the sourc­ing of prod­ucts and ser­vices,” he said. He added that the mis­sion was care­ful­ly de­signed to pro­vide del­e­gates with valu­able in­sights in­to the evolv­ing eco­nom­ic land­scapes of both coun­tries.

TTMA al­so high­light­ed the par­tic­i­pa­tion of 21 com­pa­nies at­tend­ing their first trade mis­sion, re­flect­ing the grow­ing in­ter­est among lo­cal busi­ness­es in re­gion­al ex­pan­sion and ex­port de­vel­op­ment. The As­so­ci­a­tion ex­pressed op­ti­mism that these new­com­ers will ben­e­fit from ex­po­sure to new mar­kets and op­por­tu­ni­ties for growth.

The del­e­ga­tion rep­re­sents a di­verse range of in­dus­tries, in­clud­ing food and bev­er­age, print­ing and pack­ag­ing, con­struc­tion, chem­i­cals, man­u­fac­tur­ing, and busi­ness ser­vices. Com­pa­nies such as Steve and As­so­ciates, DSB Mar­ket­ing, Farm and Func­tions, Nee­dle Point, and J Mac are among those tak­ing part, show­cas­ing the breadth of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s man­u­fac­tur­ing and ser­vice ca­pa­bil­i­ties.

As the pre­mier rep­re­sen­ta­tive body for man­u­fac­tur­ers in Trinidad and To­ba­go, TTMA con­tin­ues to cham­pi­on sus­tain­able busi­ness growth and re­gion­al co­op­er­a­tion. The As­so­ci­a­tion be­lieves this mis­sion will deep­en eco­nom­ic ties be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go, Guyana, and Suri­name, while un­lock­ing new op­por­tu­ni­ties for trade and in­vest­ment across the wider Caribbean.

By fa­cil­i­tat­ing di­rect en­gage­ment be­tween busi­ness­es and fos­ter­ing di­a­logue on re­gion­al eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment, TTMA’s dual-coun­try mis­sion sig­nals a proac­tive ap­proach to build­ing stronger com­mer­cial bridges. The As­so­ci­a­tion re­mains con­fi­dent that the out­comes of this ini­tia­tive will con­tribute sig­nif­i­cant­ly to the long-term com­pet­i­tive­ness of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s man­u­fac­tur­ing sec­tor.