Why does the Government of Trinidad and Tobago see Innovation as necessary for the development of the nation?

To know why innovation is necessary we must first understand what innovation is. It is about new ways of doing things that add value or new products and services that add value. The keywords here are “adding value” and for our economy, firms, innovation is at the heart of issues such as competitive advantage, increased productivity, and economic progress. It is the transformation of new ideas into solutions that can be used either for economic benefit or even social benefit.

The core objective of the Shaping the Future of Innovation project is to spur private sector-led innovation that can contribute to new growth, exports and direct and indirect jobs/livelihoods. The project also seeks to strengthen coordination of the local innovation ecosystem and report on innovation indicators to facilitate a more accurate representation of innovation in Trinidad and Tobago as a basis for planning and policymaking.

The program seeks to address three critical barriers to innovation:

1. Innovation financing, particularly in the private sector
2. Absence of dedicated in house talent, especially in new technologies that can support firm-level innovation
3.  An uncoordinated ecosystem comprising a wide range of actors that work in silos rendering assistance time consuming, fragmented and in many cases unhelpful to SME