An­tho­ny Wil­son

In Bei­jing, Chi­na

Trade Min­is­ter Vas­ant Bharath on Tues­day signed two agree­ments that will lead to two Chi­nese con­struc­tion com­pa­nies de­vel­op­ing and build­ing a port in La Brea and sev­en in­dus­tri­al parks through­out Trinidad.The op­er­a­tional­i­sa­tion of the agree­ments, which are sub­ject to the ap­proval of con­ces­sion­al fund­ing by the Chi­nese Ex-Im Bank, en­vis­age to­tal in­vest­ment of about US$750 mil­lion.

Bharath was speak­ing in an ex­clu­sive in­ter­view with the T&T Guardian at the Grand Hy­att ho­tel in down­town Bei­jing fol­low­ing the sign­ing, which took place at the Chi­na Coun­cil for the Pro­mo­tion of In­ter­na­tion­al Trade build­ing in Bei­jing.The agree­ments were signed through two of the Min­istry of Trade's ex­e­cut­ing agen­cies, In­vesTT and eTecK. In­vesTT's fo­cus is on bring­ing new non-en­er­gy in­vest­ment to T&T, while eTecK's re­newed man­date is to man­age the coun­try's in­dus­tri­al parks.

Bharath said the first phase of the La Brea port was ex­pect­ed to cost about US$500 mil­lion, while the sev­en in­dus­tri­al parks–which the min­is­ter de­scribed as eco­nom­ic zones–were ex­pect­ed to cost a to­tal of US$250 mil­lion.Bharath said the Gov­ern­ment was look­ing for Chi­nese com­pa­nies to take eq­ui­ty po­si­tions in the La Brea port "as well as pos­si­bly op­er­ate the port once it is func­tion­al."

Speak­ing about the agree­ments, Bharath said: "The agree­ments were ap­pli­ca­tions for loans to Chi­na's Ex-Im Bank es­sen­tial­ly, through the com­pa­nies and ac­knowl­edg­ing that we have signed con­trac­tu­al arrange­ments with these or­gan­i­sa­tions."The fund­ing from Chi­na's Ex-Im Bank for the port and the in­dus­tri­al parks is part of US$3 bil­lion in loans for projects in the re­gion that res­i­dent Chi­nese Pres­i­dent Xi Jin­ping promised dur­ing a meet­ing in Port-of-Spain last May when he met with ten Caribbean lead­ers.

T&T has al­ready ac­cessed US$250 mil­lion through the gov­ern­ment-to-gov­ern­ment arrange­ment with Chi­na to build a chil­dren's hos­pi­tal in Cou­va. Bharath said while the terms of the loan arrange­ments with Chi­na's Ex-Im Bank were yet to be worked out, he said the Gov­ern­ment had been told the in­ter­est rate on the loans would be in the re­gion of two per cent over a pe­ri­od of 20 years.

Speak­ing of the loans, the min­is­ter said: "Part of it would be 100 per cent loan fi­nanc­ing, while the oth­er part would be 85 per cent loan fi­nanc­ing with the Gov­ern­ment of T&T hav­ing to ad­vance 15 per cent."Speak­ing ear­li­er, eTecK pres­i­dent Kelvin Ma­habir said six of the in­dus­tri­al parks would be con­struct­ed by Chi­na Con­struc­tion, with Chi­na Har­bour build­ing one.

The parks, which will pro­vide space for both man­u­fac­tur­ing and ser­vices, will be lo­cat­ed in Re­form, Preysal, Dow Vil­lage, Con­nec­tor Road in Ch­agua­nas, En­deav­our, Fac­to­ry Road in Ch­agua­nas and in Fred­er­ick Set­tle­ment Ex­ten­sion.