A month after the Prime Minister visited India to promote bilateral relations, the Indian Investment Mission – a delegation of Indian investors – has arrived in Trinidad and Tobago and will be in the country until June 28.
Dr Rowley also met with investors in establishing a cricket academy in Trinidad and Tobago.
The delegation said a lot more investors would soon be visiting this "great country" to explore the opportunities between the two nations.
At a press conference on June 24 at the Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre, Minister of Trade and Industry Paula Gopee-Scoon said the investors came from a range of sectors – agro-processing, steel and metals, pharmaceuticals, tourism and manufacturing – and more were to arrive on June 24 and 25.
She said the Indian economy was a "significant one" as India had the fifth largest economy in the world and was projected to become the third by 2029.
"India is a key growth engine for the world, contributing 16 per cent to the global growth in 2023."
She said it was good to have the investors "looking for the opportunities for investment in a wide variety of sectors.
"India has a growth rate of 7.2 per cent when most countries are below that – that gives you an idea of the economy of India and how strong it is."
Monish Behl, Asia Plates Steel LLC & Gulf Metals Trading LLC; Amit Sawney, Nippon Global; and Anuj Gupta, Atulaya Health Care Pvt Ltd were three of the four investors present at a press conference held by the Ministry of Trade and Industry on June 24 at the Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre.
Behl said he was impressed by Rowley's "great vision for TT" and was happy to hear about it – hence the delegation's visit.
"It took all of one month and now we are here.
"It is all because of his great vision for this country, and there will be a lot of investors regularly visiting to explore the opportunities."
Speaking at the press conference, the fourth investor, director of Sarvatra Technologies Mandar Agashe, said he was happy to be in TT after being impressed with the vision Rowley spoke about in India.
Agashe explained Sarvatra Technologies was in the business of digital technologies in terms of payments.
"Today India is known for having the best digital payment platforms in the world.
"My company has given digital platforms to over 700 banks in India, from the smallest banks in the village to the largest banks, they use my technology platform."
Agashe said he hoped to bring the same digital platform in TT.
"I want to help completely digitise Trinidad's entire payment system...because modern payment solutions are seamless, effortless and extremely secure."
He said that helped India to "leapfrog into a different age."
"Digitisation has helped India's gross domestic product (GDP), as more cash is sitting in the bank than in homes.
"It has helped the economic growth and I believe the same thing can be done in small developing nations (like TT)."
"I believe Sarvatra can help by bringing the latest technology into this count
