I was asked about a week ago to deliver this speech and I thought“yeah man this thing easy! Sock eye!” But pretty soon afterward reality set in and I started to wonder “but wait nuhwhat I really gonna talk about”?

A positive attitude is important, but there’s always that hurdle called reality which you must strive to get over as well.

So I went home pulled out my laptop and started to go through the ‘trusty ol’google’ and did my research. So I thought ‘yes man I ready for dem!’

But as I began typing I started to think back to what I wanted to hear when I was your age.

By the way how old is everyone here?
Well when I was at your age I didn’t want to listen to adults! I thought everything they said was boring or didn’t apply to me or was just plain foolishness. I was only interested in going out and partying on the weekend. 
I either spent my weekend doing that or,when I didn’t have the money, I stayed  home and took care of my fish. My cousin had given me 2 fighter fish (male and female) and a small tank as a birthday present. I experimented with breeding them and successfully reared a batch of about 30 babies with absolutely no plans for them, but thanks to my father I was able to procure a half drum which we casted and kept them in.
Now the main problem I had at that age was I didn’t have much extra money to go partying. I was surrounded by fairly well to do people but I came from fairly simple beginnings, don’t let the appearance fool you now.
Back then I had only one pair of shoes which had to last until my feet got too big for them.So I was playing football barefoot. KFC was a reward for big exams, and I don’t mean end of term. I mean SEA, end of year exams (if I did well), Mock exams,CXC and GCE. I never had coke or softdrink in my house, only water. And the same pants I wear to school Friday, well that doubled as a dress pants to go out later with the nice polo jersey. So if I got that dirty I was either not getting into the party or the girls weren’t looking twice my way.
And allowance and money to spend? 5 dollars per day, ie if you don’t take lunch to school.
So you could say I learned the importance of finance and economics really fast!
While at times I felt jealous that some of my friends had 20 times my spending power per day, I also recognized that I was surrounded by classmates who had none! So I was glad for what I had but I also wondered how I could get the money necessary to go out and do the things I wanted to do.
It was this important train of thought that sparked an amazing set of events.
One day in school I was passing by a group of form 3’s who were huddled around some desks. They were cheering and making noise so I went for a closer look. I realized they were watching Fighter Fish fight! Intrigued as I was at this I noticed that there were several other guys with their fish in jars waiting for their turn.
At this point that I thought that if this was to be an ongoing event then they would eventually need fish. So during one of the fights I mentioned to the group that I breed fighters and have some nearing adulthood. One of them jumped up and said they will give me 3 dollars for any fighter I have!
I saw an opportunity and acted on it. I was open for business!
However, being a bit sceptical I only offered two of my fish for sale so the next day I brought two young fighters for my first client, I was even able to recommend to him the kind of food to feed it if he wanted it to get stronger to fight. He paid me six dollars, that day I had 11 dollars to spend. Sounds nicer than 5 dollars right?
Soon after this I was approached by other members of his class and I began to realize that this can really turn into something big if it spreads to the other form 3 classes. I realized I had to expand.
Soon after this happened there was talk of a big party coming up in a few weeks, so I suddenly had a decision to make, should I go and spend my savings for the next few weeks and the money I got from the sale of my fish on partying or should I buy another aquarium and 2 more adult fish?
This taught me the importance of analyzing and weighing options and making decisions.
The way I saw it, was that I would sacrifice a couple of weekendsand because the females can breed almost once a month and babies take 2-3 months to get their color, I could have a steady supply of fish by the start of the next term.
From this I had my first experiences in planning. I also had my first experience in risk management because who’s to say that next term anyone is going to want my fish? So what did I do? It happened by accident really. But I’ve found that when you approach something with the right attitude, solutions always tend to present themselves.
I asked my mom for an early Christmas gift, I told her I wanted some books on fish breeding and fish diseases. Needless to say she had a concerned look on her facedue to the growing space I was taking up on the porch. So you can say my business was somewhat subsidized.
When I went with her to the pet store to check out the books, sure enough I saw a tank full of fighters. What happened next gave me my faith in adults.In talking to the store manager about fighters my mother said with a smile,‘My son breeds fighters you know, if you need he could sell them to you?’To which the guy responded ‘Sure, bring me whatever you have and we’ll buy them’.
Now perhaps my mother was hoping I would sell all my fish and return her porch space to her or perhaps she was just exercising that motherly business-esquewisdom. But suddenly my problem was gone and I wasn’t reliant on the form 3’s in school anymore, I could sell whatever fish I had to the pet store!
What did this teach me? The importance of diversification and the importance of seeking advice from those more experienced than me.

As I graduated from school I was able to work and my time for fish breeding sadly came to an end. So I sold off my fish and gave away my tanks and equipment. I had made sacrificesfor my little fish business but in the end it taught me some really important lessons which I carry with me to this day even as a Portfolio Manager.

1. No matter how hard it gets, there’s always someone worst off than you, so smile and don’t be afraid to question and challenge yourself. Changing our mindset is one of the most important steps to growing.
2. Know your capabilities, this will allow you to know where you can create value and will open your eyes to the countless opportunities that come your way.
3. No man is an island. We can’t always solve our problems ourselves, sometimes we need to swallow our pride and talk to someone more experienced than ourselves.

The Schools’ Investment Game is a valuable tool to learn these lessons.You have faced many buying and selling opportunities for your portfolio. You worked in teams so you will have had discussions with those more and less experienced than you. You would have also had to make important decisions and understand the risk that comes along with those decisions.
Experiences such as these are priceless, and just as they have helped me, I wish that the lessons you have learned continue to help you as you move along through life.
So I asked you in the beginning, what have Steve Jobs, my mother and a tank full of fish have in common?
They all taught me a little about business and a little bit about life.
Even though I haven’t mentioned him before I would like to end with some words from Steve Jobs, who said
“Your time is limited, don’t waste it living someone else’s life…Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary”.

Thank you.

Delivered by
Ms. Eutrice Carrington
Executive Director of T&T Unit Trust Corporation

At the

Closing of the UTC Schools’ Investment Game 2012

Tuesday 26th February 2013
At the
UTC Financial Centre, Port of Spain

Executives and senior managers of the Corporation, teachers, students, representatives of the media, ladies and gentlemen….Good Morning. Today, I am so very pleased to welcome you all to the UTC Financial Centre as we bring to a close – the twenty-second (22nd) edition of the UTC Schools’ Investment Game….. A Warm Welcome to All.

Permit me to acknowledge the wonderful efforts of all eleven (11) schools and twenty seven (27) teams which participated in this edition of the Schools’ Investment Game.  While the participation levels for this edition were not as in previous years, we are still heartened by the hard work and diligence of the students and teachers who made tremendous sacrifice in terms of time and energy, amidst CAPE and CSEC preparations, to complete the job they started last September.

As you prepare for the successful completion of these examinations to propel you into the next phase of your lives, it is important that you continue to apply this work ethic and spirit of collaboration in the months and years ahead. It is against this backdrop that I use this occasion to speak with you, and urge you to consider that Managing YOUR Wealth NOW, produces Lifetime Rewards.

To the teachers, principals and students of all participating schools, I extend sincere thanks for your continuing interest and ongoing support. The success and longevity of the School’s Investment Games are hinged upon your unwavering commitment and participation. 

It is my fervent hope, that over the coming years, the Schools’ Investment Game would continue to grow in strength, and will continue to provide opportunities for our young citizens to arm themselves with the requisite tools for building a solid financial future through sound Wealth Management.

It is important to note that good Wealth Management consists of several components; key among them is the practice of Investment Management.  One must invest to create wealth. In general however, Wealth Management is more than just investment advice and management, as it can encompass all aspects of a person’s financial life including Financial Planning, Education Planning and Estate Planning.

As young people who are poised to enter the world of work [in a few years], it is critically important that at an early stage in life you embrace every opportunity to accrue knowledge, build consciousness, and develop an awareness of the financial issues that will confront you during your life cycle.

You, our dear participants are perfectly positioned to grasp the Wealth Management concepts that will guide your financial decisions in the future. Consider your goals, dreams and aspirations and be mindful that as you grow older your priorities will continue to shift and change. An early appreciation of such life events as Home Acquisition, Education Financing, Chronic or Catastrophic Illness and Retirement will augur well now and in the future.

When as young adults we embark on our transition between school and the world of work we are generally not thinking of these realities, and are often ill-prepared when they confront us.

The ability to purchase your own home, finance your children’s education, provide protection for yourself and your loved ones in the event of chronic or catastrophic illness, and to adequately fund your retirement will depend on your ability at an early age in life to develop a financial plan and to manage your investments wisely.  The investment management skills that you have acquired and honed over the last sixteen [16] weeks provide a significant advantage for creating a legacy of wealth.  

The UTC has been committed to developing financial literacy among our unit holders over the last 30 years.   For 22 of those years, this Schools’ Investment Game provided an effective teaching tool to expand financial literacy among the nation’s youth.  We firmly believe that a continued effort to equip our young citizens with the information and skills required to avoid life’s financial challenges, can produce tremendous lifetime rewards.   In an effort to revive enthusiasm for the game over the past two years, we have listened to your feedback, we increased prize monies for students and teachers while enhancing the game features with each new edition.

In my opening remarks in September 2012 when you were all gathered here with anticipation and excitement, I took some time to provide an overview of the global financial environment and the events that continue to impact global financial markets. Today, I want to urge you strongly to continue to be guided by these events as they unfold.  Remember the investment principles you have learned and continue to apply them throughout the rest of your lives as you maintain and grow your wealth.

In closing, I would like to congratulate all the participants on their performance during the Schools’ Investment Game 2012. Your exemplary display of creativity, commitment and camaraderie will undoubtedly serve to inspire your principals, teachers and peers.

Continue to encourage peers and to recognize that success in life requires presence, participation and perseverance. As you seek to enhance your financial wellbeing, I urge all of you, and in particular your parents, to continue your relationship with the UTC through its Investment Centre network and the Financial Advisory and Wealth Management Department.

Once again my heartfelt congratulations and I look forward to a much greater level of involvement from our secondary schools in 2013 and beyond.

I thank you.

Wendell Mottley

Wendell Mottley has blazed a trail on Olympic tracks, covered himself in glory at Yale and Cambridge, etched his name in the history of T & T as Minister of Finance and carved a name for himself in the financial sector locally and internationally.

Effective January 1, 2013 he took up an appointment as the chairman of the Unit Trust Corporation (UTC), replacing former central banker Amoy Chang Fong and promising to take the financial institution back to basics.

For the 71-year-old QRC alumnus, UTC is an institution which was first founded under his watch as a Cabinet minister in the 80′s so it’s like returning home.

As former Finance Minister locally and Senior Advisor and Managing Director of the Credit Suisse, the Swiss financial giant, Mottley says T&T’s finance sector has become “more sophisticated” and has grown when it comes to “dollars and dollars invested” in the sector.

The UTC has about 570,000 unitholders—which he describes as “extraordinary given the country’s population of 1.3 million people—with funds under management of $22 billion, controlling about 48 per cent of the $46 billion local mutual fund market, Mottley says.

He says the UTC is a “substantial institution that is strong and which has weathered the global financial storm of 2007 and 2008 with all of the repurcussions in T&T.”

The institution that Mottley has inherited as chairman is a “flagship that has kept faith with the investing and savings community in T&T,” which he says is due to the “very good job that the past management, including current executive director Eurice Carrington, has done in stabilising the ship through the dangerous times of global investment turmoil.”

Mottley says the UTC has developed and refined a model for savings and investment in T&T and the institution “may want to place that model at the disposal of other regional countries, especially where those countries are doing well and growing at a good clip and where their commodity industries are doing well, such as Guyana and Suriname.”

Expansion in the region is being explored but no decision has yet been taken. Mottley said parts of the Caribbean may be lucrative for UTC as those territories are “on a growth mode.”

Asked whether the collapse of the Clico and British American insurance companies in 2009 had made regional investors wary of T&T institutions, Mottley said: “I simply believe that the Clico experience was very damaging to investment as a whole in the region and whereas the T&T government because of its bigger resource base has been able to come to the rescue of investors in Clico, the other government with less resources have not been able to do so.

“There is a lot of hurt out there in the wider region as a result of the Clico debacle. So yes, we will have to overcome that as seek to have the UTC expand into the region and that is part of the calculation involved as we attempt to do that.”

But, asked whether he could envisage a role for the UTC in creating a solution to the Clico and British American issues in the Eastern Caribbean, Mottley was categorical, saying: “I have the primary responsibility as the chairman of the UTC to safeguard the funds under management of unitholders. What you referred to would be a mandate beyond my primary responsibility.”

Having survived the turmoil and stabilised the ship, Mottley sees the job of the UTC going forward being to ensure that the institution is “competitively sustainable,” in an environment that is increasingly competitive and in a context of increasing deposits.

“Last year, we had almost $1 billion in growth of deposits and that’s quite a significant amount of money but that has to be placed in the context where the banking system, with such low interest rates, the banks have not been too keen to have too much deposits because they too have ultimately to place those investments, and the supply of those investments are in short supply,” he said.

Growth of deposits he said, has come mainly from the two flagship local schemes—the growth and income fund and the retirement fund.

With the deposits coming into the UTC going into equity-backed funds, the institution is “always looking to buy local equities.”

But he says that with $22 billion under management, the local equity pool is relatively small. This means that the UTC has to be wary about concentration risk.

Mottley says T&T’s excess liquidity creates investment opportunities for an institution like the UTC.

“T&T is not 100 per cent developed. Our infrastructure can do with some substantial improvement so there should be opportunities for the investment of that liquidity in assets that will redound to the improvement of life and business life in T&T.

“UTC in pursuing the interest of its unitholders is not an institution that can go out there and take that risk. We are intermediaries so we’re looking to others to take up that risk and then we can hopefully invest in bonds, corporate bonds, infrastructure bonds that may be put out by the Government. That represents an area that we would like to see developed.”

Referring to local bonds, the former investment banker says the UTC would like to see more fixed-income “product” coming on to the local capital market. He noted that the Government has not issued many bonds, neither have there been many new equity issues.

“In that connection, the UTC looks forward very much to the forthcoming issue of shares by First Citizens and we would like to see more because that allows us to successfully place some of the liquidity that we have now,” Mottley says.

In the absence of new investments coming onto the market, Mottley says, the UTC will have to look to international markets because the institution cannot just leave the deposits it receives on its books as there would be nothing to distribute to the UTC’s unitholders.

Having a schedule of bond offerings would make it easier for investment purposes for UTC.

“I have been told that there would be more government paper coming out this year, so we look forward to that,” he said.

Asked about his vision for 2013, Mottley says the UTC needs to improve its performance for its investors with higher distributions and Net Asset Values for the funds.

UTC fund managers must constantly exceed their benchmarks, which means better-trained staff, a tighter cost structure and the need to conform to best practices as a result of the passage of the Securities Industry Act, he says.

The institution will also need to respond more quickly than the UTC’s enabling legislation had originally envisaged, which will mean changes to the structures at the mutual fund body.

Among the changes that the UTC with Mottley in the chair is not considering is to expand the institution into different areas, such as acquiring a banking licence or an insurance business.

“I want to emphasize, we are in a back-to-basics mode. The UTC serves its unitholders well by garnering their savings—especially people at the base of the society— and investing those savings well so that the unitholders can have the resources to make a downpayment on a house, educate their children and live their retirement years in dignity,” said Mottley.

As a result of the back-to basics thinking, the UTC shut down its merchant bank, an occurence that preceded Mottley’s new position, “as we are in the fee business, we are not in the business of taking positions like Credit Suisse takes.”

On the issue of back-to-basics mode, Mottley also said: “We have done well and we want to continue to do well but there is more competition out there. We want to make sure that we are in a competitively sustainable mode, to continue to do well by investors. We don’t want to get distracted to have to do too many things with too many products,” Mottley said.

Asked how long the “back to basics” mode would run, he said a strategic plan is already in place which would run for one year and “we are getting dividends already.”

But the benefits of the plan would only be seen in 2014 and 2015.

When not providing stewardship to the UTC, he is supportive of his wife’s work in protecting the environment at a property in Santa Cruz.

Performance of the Funds

The Euro Fund has done “surprisingly” well Mottley said, though there were pockets of volatility.

“We have also done well with our Pacific or Eastern fund, where the growth dynamic has helped performance rather than capacity to spot and make money in volatility, as has happened in Europe.”

Fund Year-to-date return

Euro Fund 8.12%

Growth and Income Fund 7.67%

Universal Retirement Fund 8.31%

But Mottley said the Energy Fund has not done so well.

“That is a fund when it was conceived there was the anticipation that there might have been some government privatisation or shares that would come out of the energy sector but it has not happened, the fund hasn’t perfomed to our satisfaction. It is one of the reasons why we hope the Government will do more in the energy sector, following on First Citizens, in the absence of that we would have to develop the expertise to invest in Global energy equities and debt instruments.

The fund Mottley added has “under performed but it is not in trouble or anything like that.”

Regarding its $US Fund he said the fund “did not perform as well as we liked” but steps are being taken “to bring in some expertise” to ensure that the fund’s performance improves.

Asked if he plans to seek assistance from international experts he said, the experts would be T&T nationals with experience in investing in the US markets. Mottley added that its all about trust and about “who you know.”

Mottley is not daunted by the performance of these funds as he believes UTC is a “flagship that has kept faith with the investing community and savings community in T&T.”

With the onslaught of new legislation in place this means that companies in the financial sector would have to change their methods of disclosure and reporting and UTC is one such institution.

“We have to become more corporatised. We also have to ensure that the compliance issues that are coming down the road, money laundering and so forth, we have to really spend a lot of time in tightening general governance issues.”

The biggest challenge for Mottley going forward is ensuring that the investment dollars coming to UTC are at a rate which are satisfying to investors. The worst is over he declared, as he hopes to see some accelerated growth for 2013.

The way forward for 2013, it is about “doing a better job” at improving the company’s investments. This means more training for staff and tightening of costs.

About UTC:

UTC has: 570,000 unitholders

Funds under management: Over TT $22 billion

Holds: 48 per cent of the Mutual Fund market

About Wendell Mottley

Retired 2011 Managing Director and Senior Advisor Credit Suisse, New York

2002 Leader of the Citizens’ Alliance

1991 to 1995 Finance minister

1966 Gold medallist British Empire and Commonwealth Games

1964 Silver and Bronze Medallist Tokyo Olympics

Attended: Yale University and Queens Royal College

Accomplishments:

He was a visiting fellow at the Center for Global Development, a United States-based think tank, where he contributed “Industrial Policy in Trinidad and Tobago”, focused on governance in an oil rich state.

Thank you Master of Ceremonies for your kind words of introduction.

The Honourable Vasant Bharath, Minister of Trade and Industry, the Governor of the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago, Mr. Jwala Rambaran, Mr. Chairman and members of the Board of the UTC, our distinguished Honourees, Messrs. Hospedales, Benn and Alexander specially invited guests, Reverand Sieunarine, Mrs. Clarke-Andrews, members of the Management Team, ladies and gentlemen.

This evening the simple but pleasant task is mine to extend a heart-felt welcome to all who are gathered here to bid a fond farewell to the outgoing Chairman of the Unit Trust Corporation, Ms. Amoy Chang Fong, to welcome the new Chairman Mr. Wendell Mottley and to pay tribute to the pioneering Management Team of the UTC.

At the beginning of celebrations to mark the Corporation’s 30th Anniversary, we indicated that every effort will be made to underscore the significance of such a milestone by ensuring that it serves as an inspiration to those of us who continue to labour in the vineyard and as a reminder of where we came from as an Organization.

Therefore, in addition to the injunction to bid farewell and to say welcome at this evening’s function, we wholeheartedly acknowledge and pay tribute to the pioneering Management Team under whose watch the UTC was born – in the persons of Messrs Jerry Hospedales, Clarry Benn and Michael Alexander.

Ladies and gentlemen, theirs are the shoulders on which we the current generation of Managers stand today, as we strive to achieve even greater heights. By their example of duty and commitment to the Corporation’s vision, this pioneering team was able to enlist the support of their early hires not merely as ordinary workers but as loyal crusaders towards achievement of worthy and noble objectives.

Though not the beneficiaries of any psychometric testing programme, the pioneering Management Team comprised a perfect fit. Mr. Hospedales, the first Executive Director, ensured that the fledging Organization’s relationships with its many stakeholders were well grounded and functional. Mr. Benn, on the other hand, as the Corporation’s first Secretary and Investment Manager ensured that the Corporation’s governance structures were in order and provided the investment foundation upon which we now stand – a foundation we are proud of for its Safety, Strength and Stability.

Mr. Alexander, the Accounting Manager, ensured the integrity of the Corporation’s reporting relations with its various stakeholders. Even then, he was, and remained even to the time of his departure in 2007, the champion for achievement of a work/life balance among the Corporation’s employees.

Today we lift up our pioneering Management Team not only to acknowledge and showcase their good deeds but also to ensure that their entrepreneurial drive, commitment to sound Corporate Governance and people-focused management style will serve as an example to the current crop of managers. The future of a strong, viable and living Corporation will thus be assured.

As with life, the living company is transformational; it is not static and over the years this Corporation has had to reinvent itself in order to stay relevant or adjust to changes in our operating environment. Given the increasingly dynamic nature of the operating environment, both at home and abroad, the need for change is growing both in terms of frequency and depth.

In this context we welcome the appointment of Mr. Wendell Mottley as Chairman of the Trinidad & Tobago Unit Trust Corporation. Mr. Mottley’s career has seen him as a world class competitor in many spheres including athletics, Corporate Management, politics and Investment Banking.
An extremely capable individual.

We look forward to working with you, sir, in our continuing quest to build a living organization which will grow from strength to strength.

As a teenager, I played First Division Hockey for Checkers and had as one of my team mates Ms. Amoy Chang Fong. I was somewhat in awe of her then, but never in my wildest dream did I envisage that our paths would have crossed the way it has over these last eight years.

We at the Corporation have benefitted considerably from Ms. Chang Fong’s expertise over her many years with the organization – first as a Director of the board during the period 1986 – 1993 and then as Chairman of the Board over the period 2004 – 2012.

Ms. Chang Fong’s membership on the UTC’s Board for 15 of its 30 year existence is an indication that she played a critical role in the establishment and development of the UTC in particular and the mutual fund industry in general.

Over the years, I have been particularly impressed by Ms. Chang Fong’s capacity for work, the willingness with which she explores new ideas and her love for sports, especially golf. I know the Investment Management Team will miss her incisive comments, technical expertise and acute conversational skills.

I will particularly miss her masterly performance at our Annual General Meeting and the wonderful relationship she cultivated with unitholders at that forum.

This evening, ladies and gentlemen we cater to the higher order needs of our being. I invite you to join me in recognizing the Pioneering Management Team, Messrs.

Hospedales, Benn and Alexander in welcoming Mr. Wendell Mottley to our organization, and to bid adieu to a long standing member of the Corporation, Ms. Chang Fong.

I trust that you enjoy this evening’s proceedings.

I thank you.

de/ar
January 29, 2012

Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen.  In particular, I extend warm greetings to our distinguished guests… the Governor of the Central Bank, Mr. Jawala Rambaran, Senator Vasant Bharath–Minister of Trade Industry and Investment and Minister in the Ministry Finance and Justice Rolston Nelson.

I am delighted this evening to pay tribute to a friend, colleague and an outstanding professional in the financial services industry–the outgoing Chair of the Trinidad and Tobago Unit Trust Corporation, Ms. Amoy Chang Fong. I have known and had the pleasure of working with Amoy for over thirty years. There are so many superlatives that characterize her service to this country and to the Corporation in particular, that in the short time allotted here, I cannot possibly mention all of her accomplishments.

But what has struck me most about Amoy is that critical leadership skill –an ability to stay calm and focused in the eye of a storm. During the turbulent years of the global financial crisis when many respected large institutions foundered,  Amoy’s poise and steady hand served to guide the UTC through a time fraught with peril. Yet today Amoy hands over, at the completion of her tenure as Chairman, a UTC with over 500,000 unit holders and funds under management in excess of 20 billion dollars. The state of the Corporation is as strong now as it has ever been in its 30 years of existence. So join me now in a first round of applause in appreciation for this stellar performance that has kept the UTC safe, strong and stable.

UTC is a unique Trinidad and Tobago institution. Established under special enabling legislation that created an organization forged through a partnership between the public and private sectors, the Corporation has been the proud pioneer of a culture of savings and investment for a broad spectrum of the population. And it has been an innovator under Amoy’s guidance in continuing to foster among our citizens this culture that treasures financial wellbeing. No country can be strong without fostering this long-term perspective of investment and saving.

I am honoured to be receiving the baton from Amoy this evening. And I feel humble when I remember the excellence of previous Chairpersons –John Hunt, Justice Rolston Nelson, Judy Chang, the late Hubert Alleyne and retired Central Bank Governor, my good friend and former PS Ainsworth Harewood. These distinguished ladies and gentlemen — my predecessors at UTC — built that culture of savings and investment which is the foundation of a sustainable national institution cherished by all. I think it is appropriate here to recognize their achievement along with Amoy’s. We should applaud them. I hope I can live up to their high standards of integrity, dedication and professional acuity. I will certainly try.

Now, back to Amoy. She, like myself, enjoys sports. She played hockey and I know her to be an avid golfer. I have tried my hand at golf — it is much more difficult than running. It requires patience, concentration but most importantly resilience — especially when the ball is in the weeds, the lake or the sand trap. Knowing which club to use to get out of a difficult situation, not getting discouraged, and persevering are hallmarks of the Chang Fong years at UTC.

Golf is not, however, a perfect metaphor because it is not a team sport. Amoy, like previous Chairs, benefitted by working alongside a cadre of professionals known to be among the hardest working, devoted group of people serving our country’s financial sector — this extends from motivated top management teams through outstanding middle management and loyal support staff.

These are not easy times for our economy. The energy sector must grapple with the consequences and the competition from the shale gas revolution in the United States. We have not yet fully diversified our economy. While macro-economic indicators are trending in a positive direction, Trinidad and Tobago is still exposed to the volatility and fragility of the global economic recovery.

In Trinidad and Tobago, there are overly high levels of liquidity in our financial system and consequent low interest rates. We need to find sound investment vehicles and opportunities to deploy this capital. The Unit Trust itself has grown to be a big fish in a little pond. So the new challenge for the Unit Trust Corporation is in remembering that the capital we hold, we hold for our most important asset—-which is the trust of our unit holders.

For 30 years, the UTC has served the people of Trinidad and Tobago with pride, and today, nearly every household in the country relies on us to help them invest and plan for the future. We must continue to build sustainable, new opportunities for the people of our nation that inspires their confidence.

Amoy, thank you for your service and for your guidance. Confucius once said “A superior man is modest in his speech but exceeds in his actions” So hear, hear to a superior woman, Amoy Chang Fong. We are proud of you.

Thank you.