Country Profile

Trinidad and Tobago stands out in the Caribbean and the Americas as a comparatively wealthy, hydrocarbons-based economy with rich and diverse cultural traditions and a robust democratic system. The twin-island country has a population of 1.35m people and a per capita GDP that places the country among the wealthiest in the Americas, behind the US and Canada, and ahead of most Caribbean and Latin American countries. T&T’s abundant oil and gas reserves have driven this prosperity, and have underpinned its strong economic growth rate. While excessive reliance on the oil and gas sector is problematic at times of low international hydrocarbons prices, the country has managed to achieve a degree of diversification into other sectors such as financial services, tourism and manufacturing.

This chapter contains interviews with Prime Minister Keith Rowley and Hanna Tetteh, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Republic of Ghana.