SEKOU Alleyne, the newly appointed CEO of the recently launched Global Trinidad and Tobago agency, aims to position T&T as an ideal filming location as part of the agency’s broader strategy.
Speaking to the media after the agency’s launch at the Hyatt Regency on Wrightson Road, Port of Spain, on Wednesday, Alleyne highlighted that the industry could generate millions of dollars.
“We’re looking to drive $625 million in investments, split between $250 million in foreign investment and $500 million in local investment. So those are the targets for this year. We’ve also broken those investments down into film expenditure being one of the investment targets, which is a separate target of $5 million, as well as the potential soundstage, which is $10 million. So, we are actively working to hit those timelines,” said Alleyne.
He explained that investments are counted once the interested party signs a legal agreement, purchases land for infrastructural development, establishes a facility, and submits a written letter confirming their intention to invest further.
“We continue to work with them to make sure it becomes operational. Same thing on the export side, we’re targeting $34 million in targets, and it’s just in the first year. We’re looking to grow those targets 20% year over year all the way over the next,” he added.
Touching on the $5 million investment target, Alleyne explained that it is part of an incentive introduced under the former Creative T&T agency.
“When a foreign firm comes into T&T, they bring in equipment, use local services and rent hotels and taxis. So, we also do an audit of all the expenditures—they tell us how much they spend. So, we’re able. We’re looking to have at least $5 million expended in this fiscal year in T&T,” explained Alleyne.
He said the agency is currently collaborating with film specialists to package incentives for international engagements and inward missions.
“We want to bring in key producers and other persons in the film ecosystem, into T&T. In fact, we’re about to do that in July and August of this year. And we want to show them our film infrastructure, our locations where they can shoot films, and introduce them to local filmmakers because we want that close, that cross collaboration,” he said.
He added that the agency is also working with a “diaspora member who’s a major player in Hollywood”.
“We’re actually targeting $5 million in films coming into T&T in this fiscal year as well. We’re working with a local investor to build a sound stage in T&T right now. So, it’s a local investor who is a major contractor in the country that has land and is also involved in digital services that came to us with the idea for building out a sound stage so that when investors come into Trinidad, they’re not just sitting on site,” he said.
Asked about other sectors Global T&T is planning to target and expand upon, he said T&T already does very well in food and beverage, and the plan is to build on this foundation.
“We have major exports, so we want to build on that. Let’s say, a major exporter of food and beverages, in the US market or five key markets, we want to look for new markets for our trade agreements for them to enter. We have a target to have people enter new export markets every year,” said Alleyne.
He also highlighted that the agency wants to help 20 new exporters, mainly within the small to medium enterprises.
“We’ve done about five already this year, which means we’re doing capacity-building grant fund facilities, taking them on trade missions, and engaging them across their product to ensure that they are now able to export for the first time. So, we have layered goals in the export sector to make sure the overall exports increase, but also that we create new exporters, and also that we enter new export markets,” said Alleyne.
link