Invest Barbados, the state industrial promoter is to set up an office in Beijing “within the next six weeks” to serve all of China, Prime Minister Mia Mottley disclosed last night.
She told reception to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, at the Hilton hotel that the move is intended to take advantage of the economic treaties between the two countries.
She said: “What is little spoken of in recent times is the AntiAvoidance Treaty for Double Taxation and the Bilateral Investment Treaty, which anchor the relations between both of our countries with respect to investment and taxation.
“To that extent, the Government of Barbados is happy to announce that we will shortly, within the next six weeks, be re-establishing, in Beijing, an office of Invest Barbados and a representative… to take responsibility for investment in and out of Barbados.
“We do not make this decision lightly, but we do so recognizing that in the same way that treaty was able to bring significant benefits to Chinese firms before the protocol was established, that there is also still an opportunity for Chinese firms to use Barbados as a beachhead for investment, as well as protection, as Chinese firms seek to invest in other countries across the globe, and particularly within this hemisphere.”
The Prime Minister declared that to have these treaties and not have representatives go to work daily to promote them would be like not having them at all.
Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley and China’s Ambassador Yan Xiusheng.
She also revealed that Beijing and Bridgetown were currently in talks that would lead to the expansion of their relationship.
“Without getting into the details, I am satisfied that over the course of the next few months, you will see significant progress on both the existing projects as well as new projects, which are in early discussion and are the subject of visits between our two countries,” Mottley said.
Barbados has signed on to China’s Belt-and-Road Initiative through signing a Memorandum of Understanding which would lead to tangible benefits for citizens in Barbados and China, the Prime Minister said.
“Yours from the point-of-view of investment and utilization of resources and ours as part and parcel of our developmental process in building back out key aspects of this country,” she told the Chinese diplomats at the reception.
Staying the course, she declared, was one of the lessons she had learned from her interaction with the Chinese, noting that the People’s Republic of China was able to increase its GDP by 450 times what it was at its founding in 1949.
Mottley said: “China did not set out what it achieved to do, to lift its people out of poverty, by changing course.
“China has not made astronomical achievements in scientific and technological feats and innovation by changing course.”
China’s Ambassador Yan Xiusheng said since diplomatic relations were established in 1977, China and Barbados had become good friends and partners.
Our partnership has demonstrated a good example in international relations of mutual respect and developing equal relations between different sized countries,” Yan said.
During Foreign Minister Senator Dr. Jerome Walcott’s visit to China in February, the two governments signed the MOU of Belt-and-Road Cooperation, to create more opportunities in the areas of advanced agriculture, clean energy, blue economy, infrastructure, and digital connection, among others.
The Chinese ambassador said his embassy looks forward to working with its Barbadian colleagues “to bring the MOU into practical cooperation projects and to advance the economic and social development of Barbados”.
So far, 11 Barbadian students have been offered scholarships to pursue bachelor’s or master’s degrees in China, said, Ambassador Yan.
Meanwhile, a fourth medical team arrived last week to work at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, he added.
