Trinidad and Tobago is embarking on a thrust to fund and develop an Information Technology and Communications (ICT) cluster, much like a local, scaled-down version of the United States’s Silicon Valley.

While the research done here is not expected to be for space travel, quantum computing or artificial intelligence, the software developers, web page designers and encoders will aim for their research to fuel development and sectoral capacity building, in all facets of the local economy.

Though it may not be as interesting as artificial intelligence, no one can dispute that in a time of such economic turmoil the development of a sector that will make processes quicker, bridge geographical gaps and make information available at lightning speed with the click of a mouse, could only augur well for business competitiveness.

The money invested, the effort and the human resources, will all be used with a particular aim.

ICT will be used as a diversification tool, says Nigel Chinapoo, head of the local ICT steering committee, the group that is at the helm of the development of the country’s ICT cluster.

’We will not be an energy rich economy forever. We must diversify. But unlike other diversification projects, what is unique about the ICT process, which has been proven to us historically by all the European and developed nations, is that ICT is an industry by itself, and it is also an enabling tool which will help all other diversification initiatives work,’ said Chinapoo during an interview with the Business Express recently.

He said any industry, even agriculture, involved the use of advanced technology and communications.

Chinapoo believes that without the development of an ICT sector in Trinidad and Tobago, all the country’s sectors will suffer and will find it difficult to gain the competitive edge needed to occupy both mind and shelf space in the global marketplace.

’Everybody else is doing it. So we have to keep up. It’s a fixed element.’

He said ICT had to be part of the country’s development budget if Trinidad and Tobago wanted to keep up.

While he says T&T is not only developing ICT, but making the ICT sector visible, and enabling the development of the sector, he believes that Government support is essential to grow the seeds that have already been planted.

’Right now if we have two or three web development companies based locally, in the next five years I see that to be 30 or 60. It has the ability to grow, it is not limited, even by human resources,’ said Chinapoo.

An ICT company can be run by just three visionary people, as software can be programmed elsewhere, hardware can be shipped in and the expertise to carry out entire projects can be in the hands of three people.

’We don’t need to protect 15 factory jobs (in this industry). And we don’t need to be the India of the world.’

Present World Bank reports show that India’s software company employs about 1.6 million people, (more than the entire population of Trinidad and Tobago).

While Chinapoo said he could not guess what the world would have in the next ten years in the IT sphere, and what future and emerging technologies would be available, he saw the country’s investment in education paying off in the ICT sector, and ten-year-old children would be significantly ahead in relation to understanding and applying technology.

It will not have the same restrictions as the other sectors seeking to diversify as it is not bound by physical limitations.

And though Chinapoo does not predict that T&T will be involved in artificial intelligence or quantum computing or anything as far out as the present work being developed in Eastern and Western parts of the world, he sees ICT moving beyond the basics of CISCO phones, Skype and the Voice Over IP technology of today.

Recently the Ministry of Trade (which along with ETecK is driving this country’s ICT development venture) launched the Single Electronic Window (SEW).

According to the Ministry of Trade, SEW is an IT-based (online) trade facilitation tool, which allows parties involved in trade and transport to lodge standardized information and documents at a single entry point, in order to fulfill all import, export and transit-related regulatory requirements.

It enables the many necessary permits and approvals to be processed on-line in a seamless manner.

Minister of Trade Mariano Browne said at the launch held at the Hyatt Regency Trinidad in Port of Spain that the SEW would be just one of the Government-funded ICT projects that will quickly show its worth in the tangible economic gains which will be reaped by the citizenry.

He, like Chinapoo, said now more than ever ICT was necessary to help boost innovation, seal cross-border deals, increase productivity and create jobs.

Chinapoo also heads the Finance Action Committee which was created to seek opportunities for relevant funding for the cluster.

He said forming linkages with and seeking out specific ICT funds in local and international financial houses was the next thing on the agenda.

Currently the infrastructure for the physical cluster is being laid at the Tamana In-Tech Park in east Trinidad.

The park is supposed to be the country’s equivalent of the illustrious Silicon Valley in the US and was supposed to house an array of international information technology companies and help Government in its mandate to develop a competitive onshore business environment, as well as form the background for a Caribbean ICT cluster or business hub.

It is due to be the only science and information technology park in the Caribbean and will also house the headquarters of the University of Trinidad and Tobago.

Given the fact that the park is also to house a green space, a butterfly museum and the flagship building for the Government’s Evolving Technologies and Enterprise Development Company (ETecK) the project is supposed to be done in several stages.

While Browne, the line minister for the development of the cluster and the In-Tech Park, has said the project is being scaled down, industry sources at EtecK say the scaling down does not mean work is stalled, and they have assured that the companies that initially expressed interest in the park are still interested in the project, on which most of the major work is to be done by next year.

Industry sources say the project is supposed to cost just over $500 million, though just over half of that amount has been spent thus far.