The Caribbean island nation of Trinidad and Tobago has a multi-ethnic population of 1.5 million people and has worked hard to improve its economy through not only tourism but financial services and technology. The nation's leaders have ambitions for it to emerge as a regional Americas hub on the order of Panama. But it's tough going.

Trinidad and Tobago ranks 138th among the nations of the world last among the 17 “Edge” economies we survey in the IDCA Digital Readiness Index. An Edge economy is one that has been developing rapidly and is on the “edge” of becoming fully developed. This designation is determined solely by per-person income, so thus comes with the proviso that these nations may have vast disparities in income distribution and quality of life. This is true for Trinidad and Tobago.

The country's ranking is brought down by an almost complete lack of sustainable energy, and an inefficiency in limiting CO2 relative to its economy that is among the lowest in the world. The US for example is five times more efficient than Trinidad and Tobago, whose emissions are comparable to that of an inefficient oil kingdom. The nation's technology development is improving, but relative to its high per-person income is lagging. Its social and governance scores are at the (mediocre) world average.

So there is plenty of upside here. The nation's government is part of Caribcom, an EU-type effort to create a single market. It also works to strengthen ties with continental neighbor Guyana, a small country with fewer than a million people but relatively extensive oil and mineral resources.

A combined Trinidad/Tobago/Guyana nation would be a neat idea for a novel, in which two English-speaking nations with very similar diversity (including a Hindu Indian culture representing the largest group of people in each) surrounded by Latin America could build off one another to create a small, yet powerful resource-rich nation that could hypothetically develop as a data center and AI hub.

Such a thing won't happen soon in the real world, but it is clear the ongoing AI-driven quest for powerful new chips and facilities is reaching all corners of the world. We have no knowledge of any sorts of negotiations, but it seems likely Trinidad and Tobago's leaders are not unaware of such discussions, and are certainly pushing to improve their country economically.