Jamaica
News - Real Estate - General (November
8, 2004)
Jamaica to Host Forum to Boost Trade
Caribbean and Chinese officials will
gather next year in Jamaica at a forum designed to boost trade between the Asian
economic giant and 16 small nations from the region, an official said Monday.
Bilateral trade and investment in tourism,
agriculture, human resources and other areas will be discussed at the Feb. 2-5
forum in the capital of Kingston, said Yang Liu, an attache at China's embassy.
The forum is the latest effort by Caribbean
governments to lure lucrative Chinese trade and investment to the region.
Bilateral trade between China and the
Caribbean reached US$1.4 billion in 2003, up 30 percent compared to 2002.
Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Guyana,
Jamaica, St. Lucia, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago have diplomatic ties with
China.
Dominica recently established relations with
China, promising some EC$300 million (US$112 million) in aid to the country.
Taiwan responded by severing ties with the
cash-strapped island, one of the poorest in the region.
The Caribbean long has been a diplomatic
dueling ground for China and Taiwan, which accuse each other of "dollar
diplomacy" to win votes at the United Nations.
Though democratic Taiwan is self-governing,
communist Beijing insists it is part of China and should not have formal
relations with other countries. The two sides split amid civil war in 1949.
Taiwan now has official ties with mostly
small, impoverished countries in Latin America, Africa, and the Caribbean. The
Taiwanese use such allies to shore up their claim that Taiwan is sovereign and
independent.
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