GREATER JOINT ACTION POSSIBLE

BARBADOS has signed a Co-operation Agreement with the Republic of Rwanda, and the heads of both countries feel there is room for greater collaboration between their nations.
That sentiment was borne out recently during a press conference with Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley and President of Rwanda Paul Kagame, which was held at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, following bilateral discussions between delegations from the two countries.
According to Prime Minister Mottley, the new Cooperation Agreement will build on the Double Taxation Agreement signed some years ago. She said they also intend to start discussions on a Bilateral Investment Treaty and a Multilateral Air Services Agreement. Regarding the latter, Prime Minister Mottley is adamant that there is a need to improve connec- tivity between Africa and the Caribbean region.
“I think all of us agree, and we’re coming closer, I hope to its resolution, that there must be air connectivity between the continent of Africa and the Caribbean region. As I said at the CARICOM AU Summit last Septem- ber, it is time for us to remove the middle passage, the middle leg and the middle man, if we are going to bring true devel- opment and opportunity to our people,” she stated.
Mottley continued, “The continent of Africa has the hugest demographic dividend going forward in this century, with the ma jority of your population under the age of 30. The numbers there are staggering, and to that extent therefore, the opportunities that will be required if they are to prosper, must be found not only on the continent of Africa, but globally.”
In that vein, Prime Minister Mottley said that as the sixth region of the African Union, CARI- COM will continue to play its role to facilitate opportunities in that re- gard. With that in mind, she said the Rwanda del- egation’s visit to the region and the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting to be held in Rwanda will help our countries deepen the cooperation. She made the point while con- tending that collaboration is not only needed at the level of heads of gov- ernment and ministers, but ordinary citizens who want to trade and do business.
“We agree that each of us brings to the table different advantages. CARICOM has one set of advantages, Africa has another set, the one thing we must do is to have that direct engagement with- out that middleman, without that middle leg without that middle pas- sage,” she contended.
Meanwhile, on the matter of connectivity, President Kagame said there is a “huge interest” among the people of his country, the East African region, and the wider African continent to con- nect with the Caribbean. He admitted that while this is something that should have been pursued a long time ago, “it is never too late to connect and to make friends and partnerships”. To that end, he acknowledged that provisions like visa waivers would make it easy for people to travel for tourism and business.
“This will be huge. It has a huge potential, and that’s what we are working to achieve and make a reality,” Kagame said.
Speaking earlier, President Kagame, who described the discussions with the Barbados delegation as “rich”, said that while our countries are separated by great dis- tance, we have some common challenges and a lot of experiences to share. His comments came as he said that efforts are on to find concrete ways to deepen the cooperation between Barbados and Rwanda going forward.