Opportunities exist for developing tourism products
By Shamar Meusa in Nassau, The Bahamas
IN the pursuit of collaboration and mutual interest, Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados emphasised the importance for countries in the Caribbean and Africa to seek investments internally and from one another.
Mottley made these remarks on Friday last during the third day of the African Export-Import Bank’s (Afreximbank) 31st Annual meeting which was held alongside the third AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum (ACTIF) in Nassau, The Bahamas.
During her presentation, the Prime Minister stated that the Afreximbank has become the bridge across the Atlantic and has made itself very well known to the Caribbean due to the presence it has chosen to have.
In light of this, she further mentioned that Caribbean and African nations persist in seeking investments from the North, yet expressed the need for a shift in this approach.
“We keep looking north for investments but we need to look within and across and I believe that if we find the appropriate instruments to mobilise capital and the savings of our people and if we can find a way, that makes it easy to understand what the possibility for those investments can be,” she expressed.
Mottley believes these countries can do far more to help themselves and each other before they ask others for help.
She added, “I say so against the background that the reform of the global financial architecture is still critical but we do believe that when you have excess liquidity in our banking system as many of us have and when we are exposed to the extreme conditions that the climate crisis presents, then we need to ensure that we do not put all of our eggs in one basket.”
The Prime Minister remarked that, in those investments, there will be tremendous opportunity for green transformation as she added that in there is only so much time to adapt and build the resilience that is needed.
UNTAPPED INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES
Meanwhile, Mottley said that there are amazing untapped tourism opportunities that exist and noted that while the two regions seek to develop transport links for consistent land-based tourism, opportunities exist for cruise tourism.
“There’s an amazing opportunity in cruise tourism that remains untapped not to be shaped and directed by others but to be shaped and directed by ourselves,” she said.
She stated that while Africa and the gulf states have the lowest penetration in global cruise tourism, the Caribbean region has cruise ships visiting daily.
In light of this situation, Mottley stated that the moment has arrived for Caribbean and African investors to collaborate in order to pursue this tourism opportunity.
She said, “The time has come for investors here in the Caribbean and Africa to work together to be able to pursue initially the leasing of a cruise ship, the chartering of it and focusing directly on the things that our people like to do because I really believe that it will become tremendously successful and it must be done first and foremost by us for us.”
The suggestion she made is to potentially start with leasing the vessels until there is sufficient capacity to acquire ownership, which should be seriously considered.
Recently, representatives from the Caribbean and Africa convened at the ACTIF to explore investment opportunities and foster collaboration between the two regions. Additionally, they deliberated on the establishment of a trade route connecting Africa and the Caribbean.
