African, Caribbean nations press ahead with new partnership

Trade and investment links between the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the African Union are in line for major strengthening as officials of the African Import-Export Bank (Afreximbank) hold talks with officials in Bridgetown and the rest of the region.

President of Afreximbank Professor Dr Benedict Oramah said he was eager to see major trade taking place between Africa and the Caribbean.

He told a press briefing on Wednesday that upon his return to Cairo, he would be discussing with his board members the possibility of establishing a US$250 million facility to help with the intended trade of goods and services between the two regions.

Professor Oramah indicated that he has already met with the Secretary General of CARICOM Dr Carla Barnett, Prime Minister Mia Mottley, several interest groups including the local business community and youth entrepreneurs.

“We have agreed in principle that Africa Export-Import Bank will put in place an initial amount of US$250 million in a facility we are going to call Africa Caribbean Trade and Investment Financing Facility. We will put that facility in place so that banks, companies, if they want to do business among themselves, there is financing to support it. We believe this is the first hurdle we must cross and so we are going to go back and get the board to consider it and approve it as quickly as possible,” he said.

He said several priority areas have already been identified where cooperation must be strengthened including tourism and direct air, shipping and communication links.

“We must develop logistics facilities and also work to begin to diversify the economies of the Caribbean,” he said.

“We have to find ways of also creating opportunities for investment for African businesses who want to invest in the Caribbean, and a lot of Caribbean businesses want to invest in Africa,” he added.

“The Afreximbank will be taking some Caribbean students on internships every year. We are also discussing how to attach some young entrepreneurs from the Caribbean in big African corporations and vice versa. So these interventions and other plans we are putting in place and we will have continued dialogue at the leadership and political level and also at the business level,” he explained.

Declaring that everyone he came into contact with was “ready” for the expansion of trade and investment opportunities in Africa, Dr Oramah said he was expecting a trade agreement to be put in place.

“One of the discussions we are having here in Barbados is the possibility of launching the Caribbean Africa Free Trade Agreement. I believe that the Africa Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat (AfCFTA), as well as the CARICOM Secretariat, would find this very good because that is the only way to begin to convert the intention into something concrete. I would not be surprised if in the very near future these discussions commence,” he said.

Dr Oramah said he was not pleased with the current low levels of trade taking place across the borders, pointing out that Prime Minister Mottley, who has been championing greater ties between CARICOM and Africa, would continue to engage her CARICOM colleagues on the matter.

“We agreed how to take things forward. We expect that we would be the bridge to link businesses here in the Caribbean and the businesses in Africa. There is a lot of interest to get this started,” he said, giving the assurance that he would keep up the momentum.

“We didn’t come here to convince anybody, we came here to implement our plan. So everything went very well. We are just pinning down going through the granular details to know what we have to do to show results as quickly as possible. There is no doubt this is one way of improving the lives of our people. We cannot continue the old way because the old way has not worked for us. We must find new ways,” he said.

Oramah was unable to say how soon businesses in CARICOM or Africa could expect to trade across the regions but said he was expecting all the policies to be in place soon, and that it would depend heavily on political will. (marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb)