AMCHAM T&T and Republic Bank present t.h.i.s. (Tech Hub Islands Summit) 2022

May 10th, 2022

The official launch of the 2022 edition of the AMCHAM T&T and Republic Bank present t.h.i.s. (Tech Hub Islands Summit) 2022 took place on May 5th at Republic House. T.H.I.S will be a hybrid event hosted on July 6-8 at the Hyatt Regency, P.O.S. For more information, you can visit https://techislands.net (l-r) Zia Paton – Caribbean Digital Services Leader, PwC; Colman Clifford – Head of Enterprise and Multinationals, Digicel Business; Nirad Tewarie – CEO, AMCHAM T&T; Carina Cockburn – Country Head, Trinidad and Tobago, IDB; Derwin Howell – Executive Director, Republic Bank; and Navin Dookeran – CEO, EXIMBANK.

Remarks by Derwin Howell – Executive Director, Republic Bank

Good morning, welcome and thank you for joining us. I am honoured to share a few words with you and express how grateful Republic Bank is for the opportunity to continue our partnership with our friends at AMCHAM on this thought-provoking business empowerment initiative. When we signed up as Title sponsor for the inaugural conference some 3 years ago, we had a clear vision of what we wanted to achieve. We knew that, by entering into this partnership, we would be creating a legacy of empowerment and learning, while stimulating the growth of partnerships in innovation. Seeing the continued value of this conversation and our commitment to supporting Small and Medium businesses, we have embarked on a further 3-year agreement as we strive to make a positive impact in our community.

I’d like to congratulate the Summit organising committee and AMCHAM on the drive to engineer this event over the last three years. You took the bold step to create this forum where we can discuss new tech waves, discover innovative business trends, and explore ways of using the same to elevate and empower the Small to Medium business communities.

The theme of this year’s summit is Change in Action and it calls on us to put in the work to drive effective change in how we do business. The Covid-19 Pandemic has provided us with the impetus we need to stop procrastinating and push ourselves to be proactive and creative. The cycles of lockdowns; the misnomer social distancing; the transition to work from home and the challenges of carrying out life’s routine transactions with reduced human contact, all highlighted the need for practical tech solutions, promoting modernisation within the public and private sectors, and creating a healthy business ecosystem though digital transformation.

While a critical step to digital transformation at the national level is Government’s involvement and more so leadership; other areas of society need to experience their own eureka moments on this matter and drive their own agenda if we are to continue to move the needle and take our rightful place as a nation at the digital table.

To assist with this, we must acknowledge, understand, and address the concerns and issues of all affected stakeholders as this is critical to creating buy-in, wide-scale adoption and ultimately success.

And through the support rendered by fellow members of corporate Trinidad and Tobago, it can be done. Thanks of course to our fellow sponsors, Price Waterhouse Coopers, EXIMBANK, the Inter-American Development Bank and Digicel Business for their support – I hope that we can continue to work together in building a stable and sustainable economic future for our society.

Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you all for the opportunity to share these words with you and look forward to seeing you all at the Tech Hub Islands Summit this July.

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