This morning, 56 years later and following a visit by Emperor Haile Selassie in 1966, a chartered direct flight (Ethiopian Airlines) from Lagos, Nigeria, touched down at the Grantley Adams International Airport carrying participants of the upcoming three-day AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum (ACTIF) 2022.
On hand to welcome the flight, carrying over 120 passengers including delegates and media personnel, were Minister of State in Foreign Trade and Business, Sandra Husbands; Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc.’s (BTMI) CEO, Dr. Jens Thraenhart and Chief Executive Officer Invest Barbados, Kaye-Anne Greenidge.
Minister Husbands, speaking about the significance of the first ever held trade and investment forum in Barbados, stated: “What the new Export Barbados has been doing has been identifying areas where we can successfully and competitively produce products that we believe will be acceptable in the African markets, that will be acceptable in the CARICOM [and] Latin American markets. This is why this particular event is so important. What this is doing is seeking to bring from across Africa, together with Cariforum and CARICOM countries, and people who are interested in doing business together.”
The Minister of State in Foreign Trade and Business also explained how the upcoming trade and investment forum ties in with the island’s plans to diversify its trade portfolio.
“Barbados and the Caribbean have been pursuing a South-South trade policy because we recognise that if we’re going to be able to build large enterprises, we need to be able to engage markets that have one, the capacity to purchase our goods, and who are willing to accept our goods; and two, at the same time provide us with the opportunity to purchase goods and services from others.
“What this does, it helps to diversify our reliance on a purely South-North programme, which means that if you have all of your goods going to a narrow group of markets, and you have a narrow group of products, then you are highly vulnerable to anything happening to either one product or one market,” Minister Husbands explained.
She further added, that with Barbados seeking to diversify its trading portfolio to include places like Africa and Latin America, it helps to build greater resilience for the Barbadian economy, because “you are spreading your risk across the many markets”.
BTMI’s CEO, Dr. Thraenhart noted that the hosting of the forum also seeks to assist Barbados in building closer relationships with Africa and the various nations in Africa from a heritage tourism standpoint. He said there was a lot of heritage that connects Barbados and the African continent, especially West Africa, and the conference was fundamental to strengthening these ties.
Both Minister Husbands and Dr. Thraenhart indicated that during the ACTIF conference, officials are expected to discuss the possibility of having scheduled direct flights from countries in Africa including Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria to Barbados.
Passengers disembarking the flight were greeted by tuk band music, dancers and stilt walkers from members of the Pompasette entertainment group.
The Government of Barbados and African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) are hosting the AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum 2022 from September 1 to 3, at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.