By Shamar Meusa in Nassau, The Bahamas
OVER the last three years, there has been a significant influx of investors from Africa to the Caribbean, a development President Dr. Irfaan Ali sees as having the potential to trigger massive transformations and the realisation of great opportunities for trade and collaboration within the region.
The Head of State made the foregoing observations during his keynote address at the African Export-Import Bank’s (Afreximbank) 31st annual meeting being held in conjunction with the third AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum.
According to Dr. Ali, three years ago, sophisticated investors from Africa were not seen in the Caribbean region.
“Fast forward to today, we have seen in this region, since Afreximbank came on board, more than 50 African delegations looking at business opportunities in this region,” President Ali said.
He added that of those delegations, billionaires and technology companies have expressed interest, and there has been a spark.
“It’s this little spark that could ignite massive transformation and realisation of the opportunity and potential that exists within our region,” Dr. Ali added.
He went on to say that while many might say that the region is small, businesses must look at the region not only for its population size but its market size.
Against this backdrop, Dr Ali indicated that the Caribbean region could give businesses access to more than a billion people because of the trade relationship and trade agreements that exist collectively as a region.
He indicated that as Chairman of CARICOM, he is going to work on getting all the other outstanding members of the region to become members of the Afrexim family.
Speaking on specific areas where there could be collaborations and growth, Dr Ali said that Africa has the capital and the technology.
“Imagine if Africa can come together, mobilise capital and manufacture in the lowest; we have the lowest environmental impact in the world, imagine if we manufacture all the EV vehicles in the region with the lowest environmental impact, what marketing impact that would have,” he said.
Dr. Ali added that there could also be collaboration through forest partnerships, since, in Africa, there are more than 650 million hectares of forest, and this coupled with the forests in the region shared between Suriname and Guyana, could be combined and deployed on the international stage.
President Ali added, “We have the lowest deforestation rate in the world, and, collectively, we say we are going to combine this carbon market, deploy it on the international stage, and say to the world that you will have to take stock of what we have.
“But, more importantly, imagine if we say that we are going to settle among ourselves, we have industries but we are going to settle first among ourselves how we distribute carbon credits and how we trade the credit in the forests.”
The Head of State said that there are a number of low-hanging fruits, so the two regions have to collectively put value on these opportunities that exist.
He related that there is no need to reinvent the wheel, and as such the two regions should trust each other and trust each other’s systems and the potential that exists to finding the solutions.
“That is what this forum offers us the understanding of each other and the building of trust, we are on to a good platform in the building of trust between Africa and the Caribbean, let us take this forward to greater heights,” President Ali said.
