Cove Industrial Estate. The entrepreneurs perspective

The Cove Industrial Estate has displaced tourism in Tobago as the focal point of the islands economic thrust, at least in the eyes of the Tobago House of Assembly. This may be a move that will find favor among those who do not see benefit from what they scornfully term the 'skin trade'. However selling industrial services  is a gambit which requires some analysis and a fair bit of common sense. Here's the entrepreneurs viewpoint on whether or not the Cove Estate can fly. 

First though, as we are going to air the entrepreneurial perpective, we need to agree on what such a bird looks like. The statistics concur that the average person who would put money on the line in an effort to generate more wealth is close to, or above fifty years of age. He may continue to take financial risks until he is just past sixty, and only then relaxes some. The use of the gender specific pronoun is intentional - Most of the hustlers in the open business arena are male.

Second, we need to understand what are industrial services. Experts say it's that part of industry in the economy that creates services rather than tangible objects. In the wider sense, all economic activity is divided into two categories, goods and services.
Goods-producing industries are agriculture, mining, manufacturing, and construction. Each creates some tangible object.

Service industries include everything else: banking, communications, wholesale and retail trade, all professional services such as engineering, computer software development, and medicine, nonprofit economic activity, all consumer services, and all government services. A services-dominated economy is characteristic of developed countries. In less-developed nations most people are employed in producing goods destined for the first world (developed countries).   

In discussing the Cove project among the business community, What came out was that the 'typical entrepreneur' who may survive a Cove experience, was more likely to be the hardened, entrenched businessman types. Such as the guy who has gained experience in making something and offering it for sale. He would carry the title 'Manufacturer' with pride.

There's the "ScrewDriver', a man who has seen his peers, or maybe even his family before him, import consumer goods in a knocked down state, assembly it, and sell it for a tidy profit. He has mastered the process of supply and demand, as well as the 'fluidity' of the states between those moving poles.

There are the others who may find a home for their activities at Cove. These are like the contractors who have a gig all lined up. This group do not qualify as entrepreneurs in that they have a select buyer whose potential or needs are projected in advance. Politics aside, they would usually be part of select group bidding for a job and if they were serious they'd be aware of a round robin process therein designed to keep them all happy.   

In a real sense the term entrepreneur as defined by those who see themselves thus is 'one who is prepared to take a risk on an idea or business concept'. These are the class of people who were asked if they'd put their ideas, their money, on the line, with the Cove Industrial Estate as their base of operations .

Some questions to them were;  
'So would you borrow money to fund an idea based at Cove?'
Would you depend on the local labour force to take your idea foward? Would you expect the support infrastructure to be in place during your lifetime?

Those, and similar queries were put to mature men (and women) who already had businesses on stream; to enterprising stalwarts who could command the wherewithal to break ground and hold it in a virgin business environment.

Almost to a man (and woman) they shied away from the thought. The reasons they gave, negative as turned out,  sounded viable from a purely fiscal perspective.- None others were sought as these were people interested in making money, nothing else.
           
Here is the consensus, with a few direct quotes;
'Cove is an idea about twenty years in advance of its time, and private enterprise cannot carry that slack. If they (Government) wants to industrialize Tobago, maybe they should build technical schools instead of basketball courts'.

'I can rent office space at twice their (Cove) price in Trinidad and still make more money, the buying population there cannot support the volume I'd need to make. I'd still have to ship it out.'           

'I don't know, I'd like to see a full complement of other supportive industries to my own - its a synergistic thing, business!'

Therefore a successful outcome for Cove is far from a given, since a big plot does not a market make. The current planners in the Cove do have a working a plan of sorts. For instance they'd like to see local agriculture benefit from value adding projects, like the proposed cassava flour plant. This is a noble goal, but on examination it may not take root.

The reasons are remarkably easy to find. There just isn't enough cassava in the island, nor is there enough suitable land to plant more cassava. Topping it off though is the dearth of an adequate labour force to work in the sector. In fairness, labour could become available if the profligate spending by the State on CEPEP type jobs were to stop. However the removal of trivial jobs which devolve funds to the voter, regardless of whether there is a Return on Investment is never a consideration in the Party politics, 'first past the post' system employed in Trinidad and Tobago.    

It's all pretty much a revolving situation. Cove Estate was conceived as a gift to the faithful vote; which is a normal pattern of Party politics. Cove therefore will not field a local labour force which can deliver value to an entrepreneur. Ergo, Cove will not benefit either the bonafide businessman, nor will it thrive on standard entrepreneurial lines.

So in a sense Cove Industrial Estate as a government seeded business incubator may work. The THA coined term, even if it represents a non-standard model of business, may spawn the lifeline for the Cove Industrial Estate. The fertile egg (no surprise there)  is the National Gas Company. However it may not be the gas sales to the Island States further up which may carry all of the answers as plans predict. The resultant business opportunity may well flow to Tobago instead of Trinidad. How?

The short answer is waste disposal. Cove could become the solid waste treatment center for the Caribbean.
Cove by virtue of being the first landfall for the NEO gaspipe will have the sort of available asset an entrepreneur dreams of. It has the [sic] cheap natural gas to fire an incineration facility second to none. Getting rid of the NGC stations bane, a volatile liquid condensate, can be a source of revenue also. It's not a question of not having enough local garbage since the unsolved matter of municipal solid waste from the entire OECS begs the question.

'Not in my backyard!'. One can hear the screams of dismay from the Tobago governors. But it could be argued they have already shunted tourism to the dumpheap, why not go the full monty. Entrepreneurs? The money men will come running if this scenario were to be a consideration. Cove can work gentlemen - just leave it to those who understand commerce, to those who know what it is to spend their own money. And it doesn't take much of an entrepreneurial crystal ball to see there's money in the garbage.