A Barbados delegation which recently returned from the UK and the African continent was not entirely funded by Government.
That is according to Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Kerrie Symmonds, who today stoutly refuted criticisms that Government was spending unnecessary money by travelling with large delegations without seeing any real benefits.
Symmonds was responding to comments made by vice-president of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Paul Gibson, who called on Prime Minister Mia Mottley to disclose how much money the overseas trips were costing taxpayers and to disclose how they were benefiting the country.
But Symmonds, who was part of that delegation that journeyed to the UK, Egypt and Rwanda, said he was “saddened” by the state of politics on the island.
He said not only was there not a large Barbadian delegation, but a large portion of the trip was funded by the Inter-American Development Bank and the UN Foundation for Climate Change.
Furthermore, the Senior Minister said Barbados was set to benefit greatly based on a number of discussions that were held during the trip.
Symmonds disclosed that he and Mottley alone attended the World Travel Market in the UK to introduce the new Minister of Tourism Ian Gooding-Edghill to stakeholders.
“Barbados’ tourism, as you would have heard me say repeatedly, represents approximately 45 per cent of this country’s GDP prior to Covid. It is necessary for us to take stakeholders into our confidence, rebuild an understanding between ourselves and them so that they are perfectly clear that we are open for business and are on the same track in terms of interest and investment and expansion of the tourism product and therefore, building that bridge and creating a new relationship between ourselves and Minister Gooding-Edghill was vitally important.
“We left there and went to Egypt. I must say that the Egyptian delegation obviously was larger than just the Prime Minister and myself, but it was also paid for by the Inter-American Development Bank and the UN Foundation for Climate Change in addition to some contribution from the Government of Barbados,” Symmonds said.
“We left Egypt via a plane that was sent to us by the president of Rwanda at no cost to the Government of Barbados and we would have spent three days in Rwanda.”
Symmonds admitted that while other Barbadians travelled to Rwanda, they paid their own costs.
The Senior Minister said while in Rwanda “important business was discussed”.
He said an air services agreement between Barbados and Rwanda was completed, and discussions surrounding the African Green Revolutionary Agriculture (AGRA) took place.
“The African governments have come together to do something that we ourselves are struggling to do and are offering us an opportunity to participate as the sixth division of the African community,” Symmonds said.
“And what does this mean? It means that there will be first of all financing opportunities extended to farmers in Barbados and across CARICOM. Barbados will be the bridge that allows for the funding to come into the region.”
Symmonds said opportunities were also put in place for Barbadian students to travel to Rwanda to study robotics, coding and artificial intelligence at the world-class Carnegie Mellon Institute.
He said one Barbadian business that offers physiotherapy services had been given a contract to operate at several hotels in Rwanda.
In response, Prime Minister Mia Mottley revealed that she had actually cut short her trip to return to Barbados. She said the COP 27 event was being held in Egypt for two weeks, but she had chosen not to stay for the entire conference.
Government officials travelling was nothing new, she added.
“There are always going to be three or four times in a year when we are going to have to be on the road engaging with people and this is not new, this has been throughout Government,” Mottley said.
In fact, the Prime Minister said she requested to deliver the 20th annual Nelson Mandela Lecture in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, at the time she was in Egypt so she would not have to travel back to Barbados and then leave again.
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