Two Independent Senators Support Legislation for African Export-Import Bank's Caribbean Base in Barbados

Two independent senators have backed the legislation to give diplomatic-level benefits for the Caribbean base of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) here, noting the significance of two regions tied by history.

The African Export-Import Bank Bill sets out the conditions for a headquarters agreement for Afreximbank to be domiciled in Barbados, as the senators noted the historical significance of forming development ties with the ancestral home of nine in ten people born here.

But while Senator Chelston Brathwaite praised the bill as seeking to strengthen cooperation between survivors of colonial exploitation, Senator Kristina Hinds gave cautious support and urged against sentimentality in cooperation with fellow developing countries.

Senator Brathwaite, a former international civil servant and diplomat, noted that South-South cooperation is based on solidarity and is designed to confront the global issues of poverty, climate change and global health emergencies among others. This, he suggests, is a solidarity whose time has come especially as it allows a joint effort in the face of the emerging global challenges.

He said people in this region are fully aware of the challenges with which they are confronted including those which impact health and marginalisation.

Dr Brathwaite said: “These challenges are not simple and easy to resolve. The platform that has been developed and shared around the world and which is encapsulated in the Bridgetown Initiative clearly points out the dimension and depth and seriousness of the challenges we as small developing countries face in seeking to play our role in this global world.”

He suggested that South-South cooperation and solidarity with our “brothers and sisters” in Africa are fundamental to addressing the challenges of the past and the future.

“We cannot believe that those who come from the North are going to solve our problems,” Senator Brathwaite told fellow lawmakers.

He cited food insecurity where the Caribbean produces only 20 per cent of what is consumed, noting that the region needs significant investment in technology, infrastructure and human resources to address that challenge.

“How many of the development banks of the North have put money for us to invest in food security? It is not in their strategic interest because we import the food from exactly where the money is coming from,” said Senator Brathwaite, the agricultural development expert who once led the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).