NASSAU, BAHAMAS — The Bahamas could benefit from special loan opportunities for its digital economy and in areas of food security and development cooperation over the next two years.
Chinese Ambassador to The Bahamas Dai Qingli said: “China sees The Bahamas as an important partner of cooperation not just bilaterally but also at the regional level through frameworks such as CARICOM and CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States).
“The Bahamas is well placed to benefit from increased cooperation initiatives in fighting the pandemic, reviving economic development and promoting people-to-people exchanges.
“We hope to work with the Bahamas government to identify priority areas and make full use of existing resources, both bilateral and multilateral, to take forward cooperation to the greater benefit of our peoples.”
During the third ministerial meeting of the forum of CELAC, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for closer cooperation from the international community in areas of poverty reduction, food security, COVID-19 response and vaccine development, among other key areas.
He also called on Latin American and Caribbean countries to take an active part in the global development initiative that will see the nation work with member countries of CELAC, including The Bahamas, to advance special loan opportunities for economic advancement and educational and training initiatives.
These included a new China-CELAC special loan for development cooperation; a special loan on digital economy; an allocation of $2 million from the FAO-China Trust Fund to support CELAC countries in addressing food security challenges; and the provision of 5,000 government scholarships and 3,000 training opportunities for CELAC countries in the next two years.
Dai said: “China places much importance on the China-CELAC framework, which we see as an important platform for south cooperation, and we consider CELAC countries as China’s equal partners for mutual benefit and common development.
“Over the past year and more, China has provided more than 300 million vaccine doses and nearly 40 million pieces of medical supplies for CELAC countries, and last year, China-CELAC trade topped US$300 billion for the third year running, and this year the trade figure is expected to top US$400 billion.”
Jinping expressed China’s commitment to work with CELAC countries to turn the China-CELAC platform into a leading framework for cooperation to “embrace a new era of equality, mutual benefit, innovation, openness and delivering benefits for the people”.
China-CELAC consists of 33 countries.
It was founded in July 2014.
The first ministerial meeting was held in Beijing, China, in January 2015 with President Jinping and then Prime Minister Perry Christie, who doubled as the rotating chair of CELAC, among other leaders.
Ministerial meetings are held every three years.
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