Barbados is set to become the first small island state to host the UNCTAD’s Trade Assembly.
The announcement was made this afternoon by Prime Minister Mia Mottley, who said the country would co-chair the international event with the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
It is slated to take place in October 2020.
Mottley said the United Arab Emirates would host the World Investment Forum which is usually held along with the Assembly.
However, she said because of the magnitude of that event, Barbados did not have the financial or physical infrastructure to host it.
As a result she said they would co-chair the Assembly in Barbados with the UAE, as well as the Investment Forum which would be held in the UAE.
Describing it as a “massive achievement” Mottley said it would also put Barbados at the centre of trade and development negotiations internationally.
“I’m happy to report to the people of Barbados that after some serious efforts over the course of the last two months or so and after putting in a bid within the last month, the Government of Barbados has been recommended by the Trade and Development Board of UNCTAD [the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development] for us to be able to host the 15th quadrennial conference of UNCTAD’s Trade Assembly and the companion events that go with it – the World Creativity Forum and the World Youth Forum,” she revealed during a press conference in the Grace Adams Suite at the Grantley Adams International Airport.
“This has been a major achievement…and Barbados will be the first small state to ever host this Assembly and it is a major, major, major achievement for us.
“This is a massive undertaking, but it is one that we feel we are more than capable of doing. The real benefit is not just in the tourism encounter itself, but is also in the fact that we will chair the next round for the next four years and we will be at the centre of trade and development negotiations globally which will help us begin to expand the possibilities because small states and countries like ours have been suffering over the course of the last decade with respect to the constricture of policy space,” Mottley maintained.
The Prime Minister said the event would see 3500 delegates coming to the island.
However, she said, while it was an historic achievement for Barbados, it was one which required a national effort to ensure all systems were on go for the start of the assembly.
“Being able to host the UNCTAD quadrennial Assembly is a major achievement. We are going to need all of Barbados to help us to do it and I’m confident we can do it because that’s our business.
“Tourism is our business and we know how to treat people so we have to make sure therefore that we prepare ourselves and prepare the country,” the Prime Minister said.
Mottley said the UN National Assembly was slated to confirm Barbados’ role as host in September.
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If Barbados does not have the financial resources to host the event …why stress taxpayers further by attempting something that is going to burden taxpayers? I don’t see the logic in that … to host an event just to say that Barbados is the first in the region to host such an event …
Mia is obsessed with being the first in everything. Barbadians must be on the lookout for what’s coming through the back door of Parliament to create another first for this country. We shall have a jolly g a y time in Queens Park.
Mia working boi
boy oh boy
dumb and dumbo.
This whistle blowing will only work, if you are not whistle blowing on Indians and white Bajans in Barbados.
What will it cost taxpayers to prepare for this conference?
With the cost of preparing for the much tooted ‘vision 2020’ can we afford the cost of these two events in one year?
What are the guaranteed returns on these two events in the short, medium, and long term?
Hope these will not be yet another undertaking that will take decades to repay, as we currently don’t have such capital.
I think the PM is taking some high risk simply to boost her personal profile while leading us down a very slippery slope.
Losers always have negative comments and never take risks .And we have been serious losers for the 10 years and 3 months of the previous administration. Congratulations to our Prime Minister for her ambitious plans and tireless efforts on behalf of her Country and her poor suffering people. May God truly be a Bajan and spare us from any natural disasters this hurricane season. She will mobilize this country and its people into making Return to Barbados 2020 a success along with this new major world event.
Congratulations, Mia and team! Looking forward to coming home four times next year — twice for We Gatherin’ (my Parish month and Christmas), Crop Over, and UNCTAD confidence.
@Jerry & Carl Harper: I will be right here to help you celebrate another failed enterprise. Remember all the hype about the free movement of Haitians?
That initiative was to do so much for Barbados, where is it today? You guys have no choice but to celebrate failure, and to pre celebrate future failure. Just like the previous party in office, “you lack the capacity to manage a small developing nation in the 21st century.” Your ideological partnerships, and associations with their demanding expectations will be the rope around your neck.
For the intended B L P mission to succeed the party and it’s leader would have to break with traditional partners. Take fresh guard, with a different approach, this has not happened, and will not happen while the eyes of certain party elders are opened. This illness exist both at George street, and Roebuck street sadly.