Business
China-Barbados Relations Strengthen with Model Partnership, Achieving Fruitful Results
China-Barbados relations are thriving, marked by mutual respect and benefits. Recent achievements include completed projects and educational collaborations, strengthening the strategic partnership between the two countries.
4 min read
Originally published by barbadostoday.bb (opens in new tab)
Forty-seven years of China-Barbados relations are at their “best in history”, yielding a model partnership of mutual respect, equality and benefits, Ambassador Yan Xiushen said on Thursday at a symposium marking the 47th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Ambassador Yan added that Beijing and Bridgetown have accelerated their relations to a new level, achieving fruitful results, as he reflected on the past year which included an official visit to China by Prime Minister Mia Mottley at the invitation of Premier Li Qiang last June.
“The Sam Lord’s Castle Hotel with preferential loan from China has been completed and put into use. The Scotland District Road Rehabilitation Project, also with preferential loan from China, is underway in full swing. The [implementation agreement for the] China-Aid National Stadium Redevelopment Project has been signed. The main structure of the China-Aid Centre for Food Security and Entrepreneurship Project in Barbados has been substantially completed. Hunan Province of China has cooperated with Barbados in upland rice planting and agricultural technology training, donating 180 solar street lights and three tractors to Barbados,” said Ambassador Yan.
In addition, he noted that the sixth batch of Chinese medical teams are providing medical services at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital while the inter-university cooperation between The Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) and Central South University, Hunan Normal University, and China University of Political Science and Law has created a broader platform for education cooperation between China and Barbados.
Barbados’ second resident ambassador to China between 2014-2017, Dr Chelston Brathwaite told the gathering at the Chinese Embassy in Christ Church that he is pleased to see the fruits of the strategic relationship that a small country like Barbados has with a large country like China.
He highlighted the relationship between the UWI and the Suzhou Institute of Technology to train software engineers in China. There are currently 20 Caribbean students being trained in China.
“It is initiatives such as this where China and Barbados could partner and could help each other using the advanced technologies that exist in China to help Barbados in leapfrogging, in moving forward in the technological exploitation of the 21st century,” Dr Brathwaite said.
At the heart of Barbados-China relations is the Confucius Institute at UWI where Chinese language and culture are taught.
