Cabinet cannot continue to speak about innovation while presiding over a financial system that actively suffocates it. This is not a policy gap; it is a failure of leadership. In Trinidad & Tobago today, entrepreneurs with viable ideas cannot access capital because banks demand collateral that innovation does not have, regulators leave fintech in limbo, and institutional investors sit on billions while the economy stagnates. The result is predictable: ideas die, talent migrates, and the country falls further behind.
If you were serious about growth, you would already have a government-backed co-investment fund to share risk, clear legislation for fintech and crowdfunding to unlock new financing channels, and a mandate forcing a small percentage of pension and insurance funds into local innovation. Instead, there is talk, delay, and excuses while opportunities pass us by.
You campaigned for the job, so fix the system, de-risk investment, mobilise capital, and create a pipeline from ideas to market now—or accept responsibility for presiding over the continued collapse of Trinidad & Tobago’s innovation potential.
Gordon Laughlin,
Westmoorings
