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

Coffee and a prayer

It is 245am and I have decided to write. I have no topic and no idea what to write. I am thankful for another day. I see the beauty that surrounds us. I choose to be happy. We are in the last ten nights of Ramadan. Tonight is the 23rd night. It could possibly be the night of power. I wonder if it will rain. Maybe it rained when I was sleeping. I got up and bathed and drank a strong cup of coffee. Today is also Friday the 13th. I keep thinking. Life is beautiful. Life is simple. No need to complicate things. No need to be extravagant. Believe in God. Trust in God. Be guided by God. Imagine we can pray for anything. We can ask God for anything. God is always listening. God wants to hear from us. Maybe I can turn this blog post into a prayer. My God I pray that everyone gets their prayers answered. I pray that everyone gets what they need. I pray that you light our path towards you. Guide us with what you intend for us. Keep us close to you. Soften our hearts. Keep us balanced, consistent...

Belief is a part of life

I watched this video and I quite like it as a good starting point for this blog post https://youtu.be/t44PFI_V4LE We cannot know everything. We do not have the capacity to know everything. I make plans for tomorrow because I believe there is a tomorrow not because I know that there is a tomorrow. We cannot decide today to say we will only act on things that we know for sure. This would be impractical. As my friend Chatty puts it, to live life, we must believe in things that cannot always be proven with certainty. For example, we believe that the future exists, that our actions matter, and that other people can be trusted. We also tend to believe life has meaning and that things can improve. These beliefs help us make decisions, keep hope, and move forward. Given that belief is a part of life, it is reasonable to have people believe in a God and a particular religion. My point is this. Life cannot happen without belief because we cannot know everything (unless we are God like). Belief i...

God opens doors

It is 1203am and I have decided to write. Saturday I spent the night coding. I was trying to get a FastAPI app up and running, all from my budget Android phone. The test cases were written to use Puppeteer. I ended up using Replit for that. Coding is more challenging when using a mobile phone. Not impossible but more challenging. I hardly blog about technology and coding anymore but the love is still there. I still have a dream of creating my own coding and youtube studio with a nice desk setup. That is nice but what should I make this blog post about? What do I want to write about? What should I write about? I love creating presentations. That is something I could do to revive my youtube channel. I love Maths too. I have this feeling that I could solve one of those longstanding Maths problems that seems impossible. Sometimes, like right now, I feel like abandoning my blog post. It is going nowhere. Maybe I should get up and go wash the wares. I wish God could tell me what to write abo...