Why Choose Trinidad & Tobago: New Strategies for State Assets Provide Investment Opportunities
a clear understanding of the value and benefits we are trying to achieve from investments.” ETecK has begun salvaging underperforming State assets. In February 2011, eTecK assembled a panel of local entrepreneurs and businessmen to draft a blueprint of the values and benefits that should be present in future investments. By the beginning of March, seven recommendations, including a draft document entitled “Value and Benefits from Investments to Society,” had been developed, Ramcharitar said, but eTecK was not yet ready to go public with further details. Ramcharitar said that the same process used for future investments should be applied, on a case by case basis, to present assets. The Brian Lara Stadium, Tamana Intech Park and National Oncology Hospital seemed to rank high among the list of properties worth saving. “To transform any of the assets, even if they were built 10 or 15 years ago, you still have to come today and examine the values and benefits of what had been attempted,” he said, “and who will be affected by it or can influence the success of it…There is a process for new project development and management and for strategically ranking and choosing the right investment. You cannot take a bad investment idea and make it good… If you have a billion dollars today there is a lot more flexibility and a much greater chance for success than if you tell me ‘here is the Brian Lara Stadium, it is worth a billion dollars, make it a success’… It is not easy.”
The Four Tops (Four T&T facilities open for investment) Vanguard Hotel and Spa Resort - The Vanguard, located 15 minutes from air and sea ports in Tobago, is a four-star realestate development which features 178 ocean-view front rooms with private balconies and an additional 22 executive suites with outdoor jacuzzis and private patios. The Hotel also has a 4,675square foot ballroom with two adjoining meeting rooms, three outdoor pools, gym, spa, six indoor and outdoor dining areas, 1,600 meters of beachfront and an 18-hole championship golf course. The property is situated on 20 acres of real estate and has a combined 7,700 square feet of usable land for possible development in four plots around the facility. Brian Lara Stadium - A multipurpose 15,000-seat stadium in Tarouba that is under construction on 180 acres of land in south Trinidad. It was designed by Hellmuth, Obalat & Kassabum, a US architectural firm, and will comprise an Olympic-sized cycling velodrome and swimming pool, indoor gymnasium, academy for training athletes, a large car park, new roads and other infrastructural works, and four indoor cricket training pitches with computerised biometric technology to measure an athlete’s performance. Patrons will have an unhindered view from every area of the facility, including the concession stand, while the grounds can also facilitate a hotel.
48 • Business Trinidad & Tobago
By Ramcharitar’s own estimation, success stories regarding investment in the non-energy sector have been few and far between for the last 40 years since the introduction of organisations such as Unilever, Nestle, WITCO, Carib and Dunlop. Much of the ventures since have been in the fields of retail and distribution, real estate and the construction sector, which are largely public sector spend-driven. The Vanguard, he hopes, will set the pace for the future and bidders are expected to do more than thump their wallets on the table. There are “very clear” objectives identified by the State agency and interested parties will be judged as much for their vision and business plans as for their financial capabilities. “I think the Vanguard has a very good chance of success,” said Ramcharitar. “But it is not just a question of placing it on the market and leaving its future entirely up to the investors…The value we are trying to achieve is clearly defined and the investor will not be chosen based just on how much money they will pay for the asset, but also on their business plan.” In many ways, the aptly named Vanguard can be the game changer for the new eTecK board. “If you do it right and other people see that, then they want a piece of the action too,” said Ramcharitar. “That is the environment we need to create for investors. We want an environment where 90 per cent of them are successful rather than the way it is at the moment where the opposite is true…Hopefully, we can build momentum through the Vanguard Hotel.”
Tamana Intech Park - The Park covers just under 1,000 acres and offers premier, resource-efficient office accommodation for firms of all sizes while minimising its environmental impact and increasing user productivity and health. It is fourth in size compared to other prominent Science and Technology Parks in the world and boasts advanced ICT infrastructure while it houses one of the first Tier III Data Centres in the Caribbean. Tamana’s sophisticated infrastructure ensures that businesses of all sizes have excellent access to connectivity, security, reliability and convenience. Other features include underground utilities for street lighting, electrical installation, telecommunications and ICT network cabling, potable water and a fire system, a natural gas ring (provided by the National Gas Company), a waste water transmission system, a waste water treatment facility and an electrical sub-station (provided by T&TEC). Civil works related to drainage and road paving are also underway. National Oncology Hospital - A three-storey structure with four radiation treatment bunkers linked to the existing Eric Williams Hospital via walkways and landscaping. The Hospital is intended to provide comprehensive cancer services to 3,000 new patients per year in a beautiful environment, carefully structured to clearly separate ambulatory and in-patient services. In addition to excellent technical care, the Hospital will be a monument to public healthcare and incorporate the most forward thinking trends in oncology centre design, technology, equipment and structure.