Making the World our Marketplace

On September 8th 2009, over two hundred of the country’s exporters in the non energy sector gathered in anticipation to find out who would be the winner of the prestigious 2008 Prime Minister’s Exporter of the Year Award.

The Business Development Company is the principle organizer of this event which is also supported by RBTT. This gala event was held at the Diplomatic Center, La Fantasie Road, St. Ann’s, under the distinguished patronage of the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, The Honorable Patrick Manning. Also in attendance was the Minister of Trade and Industry, Senator the Honourable Mariano Browne.

The Awards aims at bringing to the forefront the achievements of the local manufacturing sector in innovation, export development, market penetration and market diversification. It recognizes the sterling performances of exporting companies within the non-energy sector that have exported products and services in excess of $500,000 to regional and international markets.

The theme of this year’s Awards “Making the World our Marketplace” was chosen since it was felt that it reflected the Government’s goal of diversifying the national economy.

This year the Prime Minister Exporter of the Year Awards recognized top exports in the following areas:

• Top exporter for each of the eight (8) industry sectors
• Top overall industry exporter
• Rookie of year
• Export Persistency Award
• New Market Export Award
• Platinum Awards

Winners

The 2008 winners were as follows:

Industry Sectors:
1. Export Agriculture - Henry Meyer
2. Food and Beverage - Republic Grains Investment Limited
3. Textile, Garments and Footwear - Suntan Tee Shirt Factory
4. Printing, Publishing and Paper Converters - Unicell Paper Mills Limited
5. Wood and Wood Related Products - E-Zee Lumber Limited
6. Chemicals and Non Metallic Minerals - Pres-T-Con Limited
7. Assembly Type and Related Products - Metal Designs & Concepts Limited (MDC-UM)
8. Miscellaneous Manufacturing - Geneva Enterprises Co. Ltd

Special Award recipients :
1. Rookie of the Year - Calypso Marine Canvas Limited
2. Persistency Award - Suntan Tee Shirt Factory
3. Enterprise Award - Imanex Limited

Platinum Awardees:
1. National Flour Mills Limited
2. Trinidad Cement Limited
3. Trinidad Distillers Limited

Overall Exporter of the Year 2008: Unicell Paper Mills Limited

Speeches

BDC’s President

Chairman Ganesh Sahadeo

Feature Address, The Honorable Prime Minister, Patrick Manning

Photos

Click here to view photos from the event