#BTEditorial – More African – Caribbean links vital

Within the next 24 hours hundreds of high-level government, private sector and individual professionals from across Africa, the Caribbean and other diasporic regions of the world, will be in Barbados for the AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum.

With the public’s attention diverted to several parochial but highly important issues such as planned reform of the National Insurance Scheme and the rising cost of living, it is understandable that not a significant number of citizens have been paying close attention to this imminent event.

However, some officials in the real estate sector who manage villas, as well as some well-known hotels are reportedly benefitting from the arrival of several high-profile guests mainly from Africa and Europe, who are attending the September 1 -3 forum.

It is not only a forum to advance the business and cultural ties between the continent and this region, but it is an important platform from which Barbados’ tourism product can secure a vibrant new market.

Adding more significance to the forum is the fact that it takes place as we celebrate the International Day of People of African Descent.

The event will mark one of the most important milestones in the relationship between Barbados, the Caribbean, and the African continent.

Unfortunately, on both sides of the Atlantic there have been influences by the mass media and new media, that focus on the negative,  resulting in misconceptions about African people and their contribution to global development.

Africans too, have been fed a diet of poor stereotypes about their Caribbean kin, which has impacted the way some of them view us.

What this forum, organised by the Barbados government in association with the African Export-Import Bank (AfreximBank) marks, is a watershed period in the way we engage and do business with our counterparts from African nations.

In this connection, credit must be given to the current administration and Prime Minister Mia Mottley for going boldly on her mission to further engage African nations.

On social media, some made light of the 2019 casket draped in the Barbados flag for the ceremonial burial of the remains of enslaved Africans from their burial site at Newton Plantation in Christ Church to their “home” in Ghana.

“We bridged the Atlantic Ocean by the depth of passion in our hearts, by the commitment to be able to build and work together and by understanding that our values and culture are the same,” Mottley said on her official visit to the West African state.

She added: “We shall no longer want to go north but work with each other because . . . [of] the blood that runs in our veins.”

In many ways, Mottley has moved to make good on that commitment, though admittedly, there is a long road ahead in building the bridges and shoring up the confidence of citizens to fully exploit the full potential of the economic, social and cultural gains.

The administration took the initiative also to eliminate some of  the major hurdles to increasing trade and tourism. These are mainly air transport and restrictions on travel.

Leading up to this conference, there are some 24 African countries to which the island lifted visa restrictions. They included Algeria, Angola, Benin, Cape Verde, Central Africa Republic, Chad, Comoros, Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Sao Tomé and Principe, Sudan, South Sudan and Togo. 

In addition, we have seen the first direct charter flights from West Africa to Barbados this week. The development certainly signals new possibilities for tourism.

In the words of Kaye-Anne Greenidge, the chief executive officer of Invest Barbados: “Our aim is to create more tangible business, cultural and economic links that benefit the citizens of the Caribbean and Africa.”

She said these included the development of special economic zones, boosting infrastructure, financing and trade logistics, promoting tourism and trade, accelerating industrialization and expanding manufacturing and agribusiness.

The level of determination to shift away from long-held views about our capacity to cooperate has been encouraging.

The measure of success of this trade and investment forum will be in the actions taken at the national level to facilitate greater enterprise, as well as the new joint ventures that emanate from the contacts established over the next three days.