Skip to main content

Trinidad can be a tech paradise

I would not say that we are a tech paradise but I would definitely say that we can be a tech paradise. I read this article from Avasant, who has an office in Trinidad, and there were some things that stood out to me. So much so that I decided to blog about it. It reminded me about the blog post I wrote, Trinidad and Tobago as the ICT hub of the Caribbean.

They talk about diversification. We in Trinidad have been talking about diversification for years and not much has been done. We still depend heavily on oil and gas. One day we might wake up and realise we are in serious trouble and realise we have no choice. But then will it be too late? We still have time to change and we should start now.

They mentioned that we are surrounded by creative energies. This is definitely true. We have alot of creative, talented, energentic and smart people. But are they being utilised? Are we pushing the fitting persons in leadership positions? Are we listening to the visionaries as I wrote about in my blog post, what is a visionary?

They talk about opportunities in fin tech. This is an area that needs to catch up with the developed world in my opinion. The banks are pretty profitable, comfortable and influential and I dont expect them to be drivers in this space. There needs to be options like Cashapp and Paypal locally. Things are happening nonetheless and we have startups like WAM and products like End Cash. In the cryptocurrency space we have the banks blocking persons from buying in contrast to a country like El Salvador where Bitcoin was made an official currency.

The article states, "Trinidad and Tobago is coming at pace and pushing itself to be a competitive global nearshore provider." This is great news. Not only that, I would like to see that we encourage remote workers to come live in our country. Barbados is doing it. They mention our reliable telecom infrastructure. This is definitely a strong point.

I enjoyed reading this article. In my opinion it painted a promising picture. The success of the local tech sector is pivotal to the future and development of our country. I am disappointed that there was nothing written in the article about the Ministry of Digital Transformation. With all our minds and hands together we can make Trinidad and Tobago a tech paradise.

Comments

Frank Scavo said…
Hassan, I'm glad you enjoyed our research byte on Trinidad & Tobago as a potential tech hub and nearshore outsourcing location. We are hopeful for the island's future, but of course there is a lot of development needed to realize the potential. And thanks for the pointer to the Ministry of Digital Transformation. We'll have to look into that!

--Frank Scavo, President
Avasant Research

Popular posts from this blog

Mental health matters

It is 547am and I have decided to write. I have been living with a mental health diagnosis for more than 23 years. I am differently abled. Mental illness sometimes presents itself as a non-visible disability. A person with mental illness may look and function normally. Added to that we do not get to see the struggles happening internally. After 23 years I could say that I have much experience with my condition and may be able to offer words that may help others. There is plenty of stigma associated with mental illness. People think that the mentally ill are bad people, weak, or somehow less deserving of dignity and the treatment of the illness sometimes feels like punishment and is dehumanizing at times. There is plenty of good intentions and well meaning as well (do not get me wrong) but things could be better. And it happens at the highest level. A leader once said, "Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad." As the saying goes, who knows it feels it. I started a pr...

Motivation

It is 150pm and I have decided to write. I have no topic to start but I feel like writing. While trying to decide what to write I saw this question that had my interest, what motivates you to keep going even when life is difficult? The first thing that popped in my mind was God. But I do not think the answer is simple or singular. I also think I need to put some thought into this. Also what is the relationship between motivation and discipline? Motivation is easy but discipline is hard. I think for me motivation comes from the joy of success. But God was my first answer. Now that God is the focus of my life, the joy of success becomes being a success in the eyes of God. But I said the answer was not singular. So different things motivate us at different times but they all lead to wanting to succeed. This reminds me of the Muslim call to prayer that says come to success. If motivation is what calls you then success calls you and success gives you joy. My friend Chatty says that what I h...

Installing NodeBB using Termux

This is the ChatGPT prompt I used to be guided Guide me through installing NodeBB using Termux (This took some time and patience to troubleshoot errors and implement workaround) pkg update && pkg upgrade -y pkg install proot-distro git curl wget nano -y proot-distro install debian proot-distro login debian apt update && apt upgrade -y apt install -y curl git build-essential ca-certificates gnupg apt update apt install -y imagemagick apt install -y redis-server redis-server --daemonize yes redis-cli ping mkdir -p /opt git clone https://github.com/NodeBB/NodeBB.git /opt/nodebb cd /opt/nodebb ./nodebb setup warn: NodeBB Setup Aborted.  Error: Could not load the "sharp" module using the android-arm64 runtime Possible solutions: - Manually install libvips >= 8.18.3 Force node to report platform as linux to get sharp to install curl -LO https://nodejs.org/dist/v22.23.1/node-v22.23.1-linux-arm64.tar.xz tar -xJf node-v22.23.1-linux-arm64.tar.xz mv node-v22.23.1-lin...