Seven hundred international business people will come to Port of Spain in November to explore investment opportunities days before the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting.

Additionally, businessmen who were part of the Summit of the Americas conference in April will be returning to Trinidad and Tobago shortly.

Prime Minister Patrick Manning made the announcements on Tuesday night during the Prime Minister’s Exporter of the Year Awards ceremony at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s.

Of the conferences, he said: ’These provide the opportunity for increased investment flows into our country and region. We must capitalise on this unprecedented situation which brings business leaders and investors from all over the globe.

’For the Commonwealth Business Forum alone, for example, some 700 delegates will attend and use the opportunity to build business partnerships, create trade linkages and set up commercial ventures.

’Additionally, we have also invited the business community from the Summit of the Americas to be present for the Commonwealth Meeting.’

Manning said Trinidad and Tobago continued to be affected by the effects of the global downturn.

’National revenue has dropped and we are unwillingly back to the point when we must employ deficit financing to keep that adequate degree of momentum to maintain both our global competitiveness as well as domestic social and economic equilibrium,’ he said.

He added: ’However, we are confident that, with the wisdom that influenced the degree of our country’s insertion into the international economy, we will rise with the global tide, whether slow or surging. We also know that, in the interim, there is the absolute need for the reordering of domestic priorities and the management of expenditure to take into account the present and future prospects of Trinidad and Tobago.

’We must look to our creators of wealth more than ever before. We count our manufacturing sector as pre-eminent among this group,’

Unicell Paper Mills Caribbean received the Prime Minister’s Exporter of the Year award on Tuesday night.