Skip to main content

Why tech startups are important to Trinidad and Tobago?

Image
By
I think this is an important question that we need to be asking. I think the Ministry of Digital Transformation and the government should be answering this question also. We need to have a conversation around this. We need to have time, effort and resources put towards the local tech startup ecosystem. It is in the interest of the private sector as well.

Startup culture is better suited to some. An avenue for some of our bright minds to thrive. I can relate to this. When I worked for myself I was more happy. Some persons are just wired differently. There is no one shoe that fits all. This is the information era and we are working towards a digital economy. Technology was seen as a key component of our roadmap to recovery planning following the pandemic.

Nirad Tewarie in his opening remarks at Stories from Tech Startups has said that, "why are tech start-ups so important? It’s because countries and cities that have invested in tech start-ups have witnessed a major tech revolution that has improved the quality of life for citizens."

I can think of several reasons why tech startups are important. There is wealth creation, diversification of the economy, adds to the country's GDP and earns foreign exchange. Tech startups help with our digital transformation push. We are making the country globally competitive. It promotes disruption, innovation, competition and creativity. Often time tech startups have to use outside the box thinking. Tech startups are solving problems. There are opportunities for investors. It can be riskier but higher returns. It is an alternative in a saturated job market with high unemployment. It encourages research and development. I see the potential to create the next Google or the next Steve Jobs right here in Trinidad and Tobago. It helps with the brain drain.

It is an opportunity to getting the diaspora involved towards building a better future. After recognising how important tech startups are to us we have to think what can we do to bolster the tech startup space. The government has announced tax incentives for tech startups and this is a step in the right direction. We have several startup hubs and events. We have to understand the challenges faced by tech startups and improve on these. We should be getting feedback and building a thriving tech startup ecosystem.

Previously I wrote about Trinidad and Tobago as the ICT hub of the Caribbean and Our Silicon Valley in Trinidad and Tobago. These would be related topics that will also be part of the conversation.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hobby project - Store and view exchange rates

By
The next step in my project was to test out being able store and display the rates in a database. I decided to use nodejs and supabase for this. Everything worked beautifully. Only hickup was the following error due to my package.json not being correct. SyntaxError: Cannot use import statement outside a module Added this to package.json   "type": "module" This works beautifully. Right now I am just testing fragments of what could be part of a bigger system to see what is possible and what works and how easy to code on a mobile. There is no fully functioning integrated end to end system just yet. This is also what I tested. A serverless append-only database using GitHub + Actions + Pages. That’s basically a lightweight backend system. This was the ChatGPT prompt I used. Guide me through each step. This is what I want. A manually run github actions that adds to docs/data.json with the current date and time. docs/index.html displays all the entries in data.json. Make s...
Post a Comment
Read more

What is important

By
Every now and again, I get reminded of the why. Why I have handed my life over to God. It is 3:08 p.m. and I have decided to write. Honestly, I feel like I could end this blog post right here. What more is there to say? God above all else. God is our compass on this journey called life. Everything else can become a distraction. Maybe not everything, but certainly many things. You get the point. What is important? What do we prioritise? What do we make time for? The answers look different for everyone. Our lives are different. We are tested differently. We are all products of our circumstances, and those circumstances vary from person to person. Yet God is the common thread across humanity and throughout time. God always was and always will be. One day, we will answer to God. We will give account to God. We cannot live without food, water, and oxygen, but all of those things come from God. So how can we live without God? How timely. I just received a notification from the Quranly app: S...
Post a Comment
Read more

Running php and apache on termux

By
This was my experience getting php and apache to run on termux apt update && apt upgrade -y apt install php-apache I was following an old blog post that used php 7 and got these errors Can't locate API module structure `php7_module' in file /data/data/com.termux/files/usr/libexec/apache2/libphp.so: undefined symbol: php7_module Cannot load /data/data/com.termux/files/usr/libexec/apache2/libphp7.so Corrected in apache config file vim $PREFIX/etc/apache2/httpd.conf LoadModule php_module /data/data/com.termux/files/usr/libexec/apache2/libphp.so Apache is running a threaded MPM, but your PHP Module is not compiled to be threadsafe.  You need to recompile PHP. Comment out mpm_worker and use mpm_prefork #LoadModule mpm_worker_module libexec/apache2/mod_mpm_worker.so LoadModule mpm_prefork_module libexec/apache2/mod_mpm_prefork.so This still does not work as apache (httpd) was failing silently. According to Chatty LoadModule php_module ...libphp.so often fails in Termux becau...
Post a Comment
Read more