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Speaker: The Honourable Basdeo Panday, Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago
Date: July 26, 2000
Venue: Chaguaramas Convention Centre, Chaguaramas, Trinidad.
Occasion: Remarks at the formal commissioning of the Direc-One International Call Centre
My Dear Friends:
My wife, Oma, and I are delighted to be with you this afternoon.
We wanted be present for the birth of what, we hope, will lead to the transformation of the Chaguaramas peninsular into "The Other Silicon Valley".
California may have started long before us, but Trinidad and Tobago has at least one very sharp edge over other locations for a new Silicon Valley.
I am sure that you all agree that for environment, for ambience, California, USA, can have nothing to match Chaguaramas.
Chaguaramas is incomparable, truly incomparable. If location counts for anything, Chaguaramas today enters the information superhighway as a strong contender for the designation, "The Other Silicon Valley."
So, my friends, starting with Direc-One, we�re ready to show the world what we�ve got � just as our soccer squad did on Sunday.
My Dear Friends:
I want to speak, now, directly to Mr. and Mrs. John Gillette, Patriarch and Matriarch of a family of notable contributors to nation building.
Mr. and Mrs. Gillette:
Because of you, we are here today.
You laid the foundation.
Your children have built impressively upon that foundation.
Among the important pillars in the foundation that you built, were the strong religious values, and the strong family values, that you instilled in your children.
You made sure that your children got a good education.
Responding to your guidance, your children got a very good education.
They evidently took Sparrow�s advice, they went to school and learnt well.
From all that I know, you have been exemplary parents.
You provided the example as well the proper precepts to your children.
That is why, today, your children are filling your hearts with such pride.
Your pride in your children shows, and your joy in your children shows.
Mr. and Mrs. John Gillette:
Oma and I are grateful for the opportunity to share your pride, and your joy, today.
We are grateful to you both for your role in preparing the platform on which your children have developed the organisation that we formally launch today.
Direc-One International Call Centre and its 700 employees are now members of the extended Gillette family.
The additional 500 persons who will be recruited within a year will also be members of that family.
This means that the immediate families of those 1200 Direc-One employees, numbering thousands, will benefit directly from the establishment of the business venture that marks the start of "The Other Silicon Valley".
Mr. and Mrs. Gillette:
On a personal note, I thank you for sharing your son, Lindsay, with the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.
Through this, you are sharing Lindsay with the entire population.
Senator Lindsay�s drive, his capabilities, his decisiveness, and his dedication to making a difference, are welcome assets to public life in this country.
I thank you especially for that.
Thank you, Mrs. Gillette, thank you, Mr. Gillette, for being the source of much that is good, so much that is beneficial to Trinidad and Tobago.
Ladies and Gentlemen;
My Dear Friends:
The wave of prosperity that is sweeping across Trinidad and Tobago continues to grow, and it continues to increase in momentum.
Direct-One International Call Centre is the latest of a number of business ventures that I have had the privilege of launching, this year.
We have the second and third trains of the Atlantic LNG plant.
We have the Caribbean Nitrogen Company venture.
We have Reema International Corporation�s Gas-to-Liquids Plant.
We have the Caribe Ceramics project.
New projects kicking off this year represent aggregate investment of the order of $12 BILLION.
We have another $12 BILLION in new investments in the pipeline; all but one of those projects are in the energy sector.
This surge of new investment in this country at the dawn of the new century is compelling testimony to the unprecedented level of investor confidence in Trinidad and Tobago.
This surge of investment also expands and intensifies the surge of prosperity that is providing for every citizen, a growing share of the good things that are happening in our country today.
Against all of the new projects, though by no means one of the big ticket items, Direc-One is the venture that will have the greatest social impact, through job creation.
None of the other new projects will get within striking distance of the 700 new Direc-One jobs already in place, and the additional 500 jobs to be filled within the year.
I can think of no other operation in this part of the world that has generated so vast a number of permanent jobs at start up.
It would be difficult for any organisation to outperform Direc-One in the delivery of direct and immediately measurable benefit to the society.
Of particular relevance, in my view, is the proportion of females to males employed with Direc-One.
Did I hear that 80 per cent of Direc-One�s employees are women?
This, I suppose, is reflective of the pattern we are seeing as women continue to correct and indeed reverse traditional gender imbalances.
My Dear Friends:
Let me speak, now, to the employees of Direc-One.
Patrice Trim, Mohini Maharaj, you and your fellow employees are very special persons.
You are special because you are the first employees of this exciting new organization, the first major new business venture to begin operations in this country in this century.
You are special because of the close to 2000 persons who applied, you best met the criteria that were used in recruiting staff for Direc-One.
Those criteria are directly relevant to the subjects that will be basic to the new education system; at the primary level, and at the secondary level.
Rismaa Mohammed, Jessy Edwards, both of you, and every one of Direc-One�s 700 employees, were called upon to demonstrate good comprehension skills and good communications skills.
You were tested in reading, and you were required to demonstrate reasonable mathematical skill.
"Attitude" also figured highly in the evaluation of all applicants.
So, too, did "Conflict Resolution".
You were all winners.
You are all winners.
I congratulate you all.
Quite logically, Ms. Denise Ali, Direc-One�s young and dynamic Human Resources Manager, also looked for computer skills among the 1200 applicants who were short-listed for interviews.
Related to this, I took part, yesterday, in the launch of the Third Cycle of the Vacation Computer Literacy Programme, organised by the National Energy Skills Centre and the Ministry of Education.
Some 10,000 persons have registered for that programme.
Clearly, the information technology spark has been ignited in Trinidad and Tobago.
We are indeed gearing up for a central position in the global knowledge economy that comes with the new century.
I do not think that anybody would deny my administration the credit for catalyzing the computer revolution, as part of the revolution in education.
Such measures as free computer loans for public servants, and the removal of duties and taxes on computers and computer supplies for every one, have helped to expand the population�s access to computers.
It is therefore heartening that we have in Trinidad and Tobago a cadre of entrepreneurs, notable among them, the Gillettes, who will actively be transforming Chaguaramas into the Other Silicon Valley.
On this score, I remain committed to promoting entrepreneurship and enhancing the entrepreneurial dynamic in this country.
I see this to be imperative to sustaining the rate of growth that we have achieved in recent years.
Government policies and programmes that are targeted specifically at the entrepreneurial sector will have a more significant, direct impact than programmes simply aimed at improving the business context, generally.
We must go beyond that.
We must aggressively develop a culture of entrepreneurship in the entire society.
Now is the time for us to discard the superstition that business is only for some groups in the society.
We must recognize that long-term, sustained enhancement of entrepreneurial activity requires a substantial commitment to and investment in education, not only at the post secondary level, but at every level of our education system.
Developing the skills and capabilities required to start a business should be integrated into specific educational and vocational training programs at all educational levels.
Regardless of education level, emphasis should be placed on developing an individual's capacity to recognize and pursue business opportunities.
Government and public policy officials and opinion leaders from all spheres have a key role to play in creating a culture that validates and promotes entrepreneurship throughout our society.
To this end, I have brought private sector entrepreneurs like Lindsay Gillette and Carlos John into the Cabinet.
I have taken decisions and called for implementation that were entrepreneurial in character.
The new education system is an example.
Had I followed the rules, I would have appointed a Committee to study the problems associated with those 8,9,10 thousand young children who had the doors to secondary education slammed in their faces, every year.
Then, as had been done in the previous government, I would have concealed the report from the public, locked it away in a vault, and left those tens of thousands of children by the way- side, most of them doomed to face life as failures.
I chose not to take the beaten path that leads to nowhere.
Universal Free Secondary Education is now a reality.
One hundred percent a reality.
It will take a strong entrepreneurial spirit for all those new secondary schools to be completed, all the schools needing repair to be upgraded, all the programmes tailored to children�s capabilities to be in place, all the teachers to be properly prepared.
All of this for the opening of the new school year on September 1st.
Will there be hiccups?
Will there be glitches?
Will there be setbacks?
Of course there will be.
But every child will get a secondary education, and a better quality of education than would have been the case one year ago.
Still on the subject of entrepreneurship, let�s take the Airport.
How long has this country needed a new Airport?
How long has this country been talking about a new Airport?
We have a new Airport.
I�ll tell you something.
I have called for a study of the cost of current airport construction around the world, our new airport included.
I can tell you, Trinidad and Tobago is getting value for money in the new airport.
Take another popular topic, the Miss Universe Pageant.
It took outstanding entrepreneurship to convert the hangar just across the road into the magnificent theatre that the world viewed last year.
My dream is to replace the colonial culture of bureaucracy from the public service with an entrepreneurial culture that will bring benefit to every public servant and to every member of the public.
For all of this to happen, we must expose every child to entrepreneurial influences.
To this end, we must find ways to bring people like Lindsay Gillette, Peter Gillette, Carlos John, Anthony Sabga, Dr. Aleem Mohammed, Arthur Lok Jack, Lawrence Duprey, Jack Warner, Machel Montano, Issa Nicholas, all noted entrepreneurs, into our primary school classroom, and into our secondary school classrooms.
Not only must Trinidad and Tobago be a skills-based and knowledge-based nation, we must also be a nation of entrepreneurs, of the ilk of the Gillette family.
On the way to that goal, our considerable corps of entrepreneurs will, I am confident, be rapidly establishing new ventures here at Chaguaramas, and everywhere else in Trinidad and Tobago.
That rising pride of prosperity is rapidly becoming a tidal wave of prosperity on which every citizen will be swept along to a better life, a much better life.
Thank you, Ladies and Gentlemen.
May I suggest that for your own telecommunications needs, you note the most important e-mail address in the Universe, and that you use that address every day:
G-O-D dot COM.
(God.com).
May God Bless this venture.
May God Bless you all.