KRISTY RAM­NAR­INE

Kristy.ram­nar­ine@cnc3.co.tt

Bi­lat­er­al trade be­tween T&T and Chi­na has topped US$1 bil­lion for the fourth con­sec­u­tive year, plac­ing the part­ner­ship among the most ro­bust in the Caribbean.

The mile­stone was an­nounced by Chi­nese Am­bas­sador Ren Hongyan dur­ing a re­cep­tion at the Hilton Trinidad on Sep­tem­ber 28 to mark the 76th an­niver­sary of the found­ing of the Peo­ple’s Re­pub­lic of Chi­na.

“In my re­cent cour­tesy calls on Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, and sev­er­al Cab­i­net min­is­ters, we en­gaged in in-depth dis­cus­sions on prag­mat­ic co­op­er­a­tion for the fu­ture,” Am­bas­sador Ren said.

He high­light­ed the Phoenix Park In­dus­tri­al Es­tate as a flag­ship Belt and Road Ini­tia­tive project, not­ing that its Spe­cial Eco­nom­ic Zone is ex­pect­ed to stim­u­late new growth. He al­so con­firmed that the Chi­na-do­nat­ed Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre has com­plet­ed the ten­der­ing process, with con­struc­tion set to be­gin soon.

Look­ing ahead, Am­bas­sador Ren stressed Bei­jing’s com­mit­ment to broad­en­ing co­op­er­a­tion with Port-of-Spain.

“Chi­na stands ready to work with Trinidad and To­ba­go to ex­pand co­op­er­a­tion in trade, cul­ture, ecol­o­gy, se­cu­ri­ty, re­new­able en­er­gy, ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence, and many oth­er ar­eas, so as to bring greater ben­e­fits to our peo­ples and build an even clos­er Chi­na–Trinidad and To­ba­go com­mu­ni­ty with a shared fu­ture,” he said.

Ear­li­er that day, the two na­tions signed an agree­ment on eco­nom­ic and tech­ni­cal co­op­er­a­tion, un­der which Chi­na will pro­vide a grant of $94 mil­lion to sup­port projects di­rect­ly ben­e­fit­ing cit­i­zens.

Act­ing Min­is­ter of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Kennedy Swarats­ingh, who al­so serves as Min­is­ter of Plan­ning, said the grant will help T&T im­ple­ment “im­pact­ful na­tion­al projects”.

“Notwith­stand­ing the new vi­sion for the coun­try and the con­comi­tant new di­rec­tion for pub­lic pol­i­cy, this Gov­ern­ment re­mains com­mit­ted to en­gage­ment with the Peo­ple’s Re­pub­lic of Chi­na,” Swarats­ingh not­ed.

He point­ed to re­cent diplo­mat­ic ex­changes, in­clud­ing Prime Min­is­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s meet­ing with the am­bas­sador and the par­tic­i­pa­tion of Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary Wil­fred Nicholas Mor­ris at the Glob­al Civil­i­sa­tions Di­a­logue Min­is­te­r­i­al Meet­ing in Ju­ly 2025.

Ac­cord­ing to Swarats­ingh, the two na­tions share a “proven track record” of col­lab­o­ra­tion, strength­ened by T&T’s role in the Ninth Round of Chi­na–Caribbean Con­sul­ta­tions in Au­gust and on­go­ing en­gage­ment through the Chi­na–CELAC Fo­rum, which adopt­ed a 2025–2027 Ac­tion Plan ear­li­er this year.