Above: Port of Spain (CJ Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Invest Trinidad and Tobago hosted a business forum in Shanghai on Thursday aimed at courting investment from China.

The forum, which was hosted in collaboration with the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, attracted about 120 people, the government said in a release.

“We have noted with great interest that in 2013, China invested approximately US$20 Billion in Latin America and the Caribbean and are hopeful that our country can be a recipient of a larger portion of these flows,” said Trinidad and Tobago Trade, Industry and Investment Minister Vasant Bharath. “Chinese companies are outbound and seemingly on a mission.”

Bharath pointed to China’s outbound direct investment, which grew by 16.8 percent to $90.17 billion USD last year.

Bharath also said that Trinidad was specifically looking to attract investment in the financial services sector, with the goal of developing an International Financial Centre.

“We are specially seeking to develop a Financial Institution Support Services Industry (FINeSS) and currently provide a range of attractive fiscal incentives to encourage this type of economic activity,” he said.