PM Skerrit pleased with outcome of official visit to China

Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit on Friday said that China has agreed to provide over EC$27 million towards budget support to Dominica as he described his official visit to Beijing last week as a major success.

Skerrit led an official delegation to the East Asian country marking the 20 anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries and Skerrit told a news conference “we received the highest level of consideration by all whom we interacted with and had no doubt that we were among friends.”

He said the highlight of the visit was the meeting with President Xi Jinping last Monday where “we restated our commitment to the friendly ties which have existed between our two countries for the past two decades.

“President Xi and I agreed that our relations are a firm example of successful collaboration and a model of mutual respect between developing countries,” Skerrit said, describing China as “a true friend of Dominica.”

He said he had received the assurance from President Xi of his government’s intent to maintain and strengthen ties and explore further cooperation in areas of economy, education, health and infrastructure.

“President Xi expressed appreciation for Dominica’s steadfast friendship and said he was willing to work with us to develop fresh strategies to increase cooperation and deliver sustained benefits to our peoples,” Skerrit told reporters.

“I welcomed these expressions of friendship and cooperation and pledged Dominica’s commitment to fostering an even deeper alliance with China and expanding our economic links in new areas such as tourism, e-commerce and renewable energy.”

He said he held similar discussions with Premier Li Qiang to outline specific areas of collaboration and that based on the discussions, “I can assure you that Dominica will continue to partner with the People’s Republic of China on major initiatives designed to uplift the lives and livelihoods of our citizens”.

He said this will include the construction of the road from proposed new airport to Portsmouth adding that China is also going to provide assistance to Dominica for the construction of a cultural centre.

He said Beijing had also given a “pledge of over 27 million dollars for interventions to go towards budget support and government initiatives to be determined by the government,” with Skerrit indicating that part of the funds will be assigned to the future housing programme.

“We also made representation for assistance to construct the new cruise and cargo port, and we will follow up on these with the necessary submissions,” he said, adding that the government ministers who accompanied him on the weeklong visit to China, signed 10 agreements and memoranda of understanding with China for phase nine of the Agricultural Technical Cooperation Project, the Colihaut River retaining wall, home repair and the construction of modern toilets project.

He said the agreements also cover economic and technical cooperation between the two countries, as well as the “cooperation plan between our two governments on jointly promoting the Belt & Road Initiative”.

He said the agreements also allow for cooperation between Xinhua News Agency of China and the Government Information Service as well as an accord between China Media Group and the Government Information Service.

Skerrit said that the visit also provided an opportunity to meet with potential investors to pitch ideas for sustainable business ideas in Dominica.

He said Finance Minister Dr Irving McIntyre, and Tourism Minster Denise Charles-Pemberton also made presentations to several business leaders and investors, outlining opportunities in tourism, renewable energy, agriculture and e-commerce.

“There is high interest in exploring business and investment opportunities here, and we will pursue these aggressively in efforts to open new gateways to economic growth,” Skerrit said, adding that he had addressed the Boao Forum for Asia “where I urged leaders to adopt a collaborative approach to address common global challenges such as climate change and economic inequality”.

Skerrit said China has a reputation for rapid development in foreign trade, investment and industry and that he held talks with the Vice Mayor of Shanghai Hua Yuan, “to discuss possible collaboration between Shanghai and Dominica, specifically in business and industry. “Again, we have every intention to follow up on these valuable links established during my official visit,” Skerrit told reporters.