India proposes funding for small, medium-scale businesses in CARICOM
Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India’s Minister of External Affairs, is on a four-day official visit to Guyana and says he wants to strengthen connections with Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member states.
On Friday, Jaishankar began his activities with a long meeting with CARICOM for the 4th CARICOM-India Ministerial Meeting at the CARICOM Secretariat Headquarters, congratulating Secretary General Dr. Carla Natalie Barnett and her staff on CARICOM’s 50th anniversary.
He then co-chaired the 4th India-CARICOM Ministerial Meeting at CARICOM headquarters with Jamaica’s Foreign Minister Kamina Smith.
The Foreign Ministers Meeting was viewed as another significant step toward institutionalizing high-level engagements between India and the CARICOM states.
It comes after the formation of the CARICOM-India Joint Commission in 2015, the restart of Ministerial meetings, and the first CARICOM-India Summit-Level Meeting in 2019.
These interactions have given the relationship a boost and provided policy guidance for future CARICOM-India talks, and are considered as another step toward strengthening relations.
The officials also discussed how the strategic relationship can promote the Region’s goals, such as climate change, agriculture, and energy, during the discussion.
India’s sympathy and support are considered as contributing to regional integration goals such as agriculture, ICT, climate change, and disaster risk management.
Furthermore, the ministers covered broad sectoral cooperation, such as Trade & Economy; Agriculture & Food Security; Health & Pharma; Energy & Renewables; Infrastructure, ICT & eGovernance; Development Partnership & Capacity Building; Higher Education; Culture, and P2P domains. They also discussed critical topics such as climate change and disaster resilience, counter-terrorism, reformed multilateralism, and increased collaboration at multilateral forums. They also agreed on next actions, such as conducting the second Joint Commission Meeting this year.
During the fourth India-CARICOM ministerial conference, Jaishankar emphasized critical global challenges such as Covid-19, climate events, debt and trade stress, and food and energy security. “Covid, increasing intensity and frequency of climate events, debt and trade stress situations that many of us find ourselves in, as well as food and energy security concerns,” said Jaishankar, who co-chaired the meeting.
India, which presently chairs the G20, is eager to assist countries not represented at the table through the ‘Voice of the Global South’ approach, he added.
“This year, we have the honor of chairing the G20, and my Prime Minister has stated unequivocally that we (should) be there not only for ourselves, but also for the countries that are not represented at the G20 table.”
As a result, we conducted a round of discussions on what we call the Voice of the Global South process,” he explained.
At the India-CARICOM ministerial meeting, the External Minister proposed a proposal for small and medium-sized enterprises in the Caribbean, including grant support for individual projects up to a million dollars and the formation of a partner group in India to provide machinery, technology, and training.
“What we’d like to do is form a partner group in India and see if our capability, which includes the supply of machinery, technology, and training – if we can get really viable project offers from your side, we’d be very happy to look at it,” Jaishankar said.
He also emphasized the importance of health security and advocated a regional hub in India for low-cost generics produced by USFDA-approved plants.
The minister stated that India has a domestic program for low-cost generics that could benefit low-income people worldwide.
“If that is of interest to you, we are developing a system to make low-cost generics available to your people.” We’d like to establish a regional centre for this. “All of these would come from USFDA-approved plants, of which India currently has about 600,” he said.
Jaishankar underscored India’s commitment to cooperate and collaborate with countries in the CARICOM area and around the world to address serious global concerns.
In her remarks, CARICOM Secretary General Dr Carla Barnett emphasized India’s solidarity and support for the advancement of regional integration goals in areas such as agriculture, information and communications technology (ICT), climate change mitigation and adaptation, and disaster risk management.
“The Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) Programme’s multi-sectoral capacity building programming has greatly benefited CARICOM Member States.” The Indian government has set aside US$150 million in concessional financing for the region. Furthermore, in accordance with the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, CARICOM-India information transfer has been enabled by ICT Centres built in Grenada and Guyana, as well as the recent secondment of an Indian Fisheries Expert to the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM). The CARICOM Secretariat has also benefited from the Government of India’s generosity in terms of ICT equipment, training, and technical help.”
Jaishankar also met with counterparts from other participating countries in bilateral discussions.
During his meeting with Suriname’s Albert Ramdin, he discussed bilateral and multilateral subjects of mutual concern.
During his meeting with St Kitts and Nevis Foreign Minister Dr Denzil Douglas, they discussed the resonance in agriculture and digital areas, emphasizing that India will always speak the concerns of the Global South.
Both sides discussed ISA, CDRI, training, and UNSC reform with Bahamas Parliamentary Secretary Jamahl Strachen, who is also an Indian graduate. During his meeting with Grenada’s FM Joseph Andall, he discussed strengthening the development partnership and reaffirming his belief in Reformed Multilateralism.
Barbados Foreign Minister Kerrie Symmonds then discussed collaboration in renewable energy, health, and skills. Jamaican Foreign Minister Kamina Johnson Smith, who had effectively co-chaired the India-CARICOM conference earlier in the day, then discussed moving forward with cooperation in training and development partnership. They also agreed on the significance of business-to-business exchanges in forging better relations.
During his discussion with Dr. Amery Browne, Foreign Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, they discussed how to move forward with the development partnership, with an emphasis on digital transformation and health areas, as well as multilateral cooperation.
He also met with the foreign ministers of St Vincent and Grenadines, Keisal Peters, and St Lucia, Alva Baptiste.