BRIDGETOWN (CMC):
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley Monday defended her government’s donation of two hectares of land at a historic site here for the construction of the first Afreximbank African Trade Centre (AATC) outside of Africa, noting that the country has been making similar donations for over 50 years.
Mottley joined with the president of the Cairo-based, Africa Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), Professor Benedict O. Oramah, to turn the sod for the construction of the AATC even as some Barbadians voiced strong objection to the donation of the land to the multinational financial organisation.
Afreximbank opened its Caribbean Community (CARICOM) branch in Barbados in August 2023 and says the construction of the AATC here shows its commitment to the region.
It says AATCs are transformative hubs strategically emerging in key commercial capitals across Africa and the Caribbean.
They are designed to enhance trade, empower businesses, and drive economic diversification, Afreximbank says, adding that these centres will provide seamless access to integrated trade services, valuable market data, and unparalleled networking opportunities.
Mottley told the groundbreaking ceremony that the AATC “isn’t just about commerce and business, but it is also about commerce and business”.
She said her government was “proud to be able to bring into the pantheon of financial institutions in this country, the Afreximbank, not simply as an entity that is leasing a building from somebody for an office, but that as someone who is now about to lay roots and foundations in this country.”
Mottley emphasised that the AATC was the first to be built outside of Africa, just as Barbados was the first Afreximbank hub outside of the continent.
“And in so doing, we send the signal that we intend to be able to reclaim our Atlantic destiny in ways that allow us not simply to look north, but to continue to look east, west and south,” she said, noting that the AATC will be built on the site that had been home to the first hospital to be built here for the country’s emancipated slaves and opened in 1844, eight years after it was first discussed.
“I am uniquely aware of the history of this site, and there can be no better use for this site to ensure that in the same way, people came to tend to sick bodies in 1844 on this site that we come today to tend to those who need prosperity in the Americas from this site here in Bridgetown.”
She said that on September 13, 1994, she left the government headquarters and travelled to the site and entered for the first time, an office where she was a minister in the then government.
“My office was in the building, two buildings behind this tent, and I spent just under two years there while we refurbished the old Queen’s College site, which then became the Ministry of Education.
“I say these things because the simple determination to make this site again for purposes that will add value to the people of this nation cannot be reduced to the kind of diatribe that I’ve heard.”
Mottley noted that Barbados is a sovereign state, adding that like other sovereign nations, the government enters into relationships with regional and international bodies that have “acceptable standards and norms”.
She said Barbados took “immense pride” when Kofi Annan, the first secretary general of the United Nations from the African continent, visited at the turn of the millennium to open up the United Nations House.
She pointed out that the Barbados government gave the land to the United Nations and also built the house, adding that this is now taken for granted.
“The same happened with other entities, the most recent of which is the Caribbean Examinations Council building, where we not only gave the land, but we also built the building,” Mottley said, adding that she could limit her references to such donations to financial institutions.
“And if I were so to do, just over 50 years ago, when the Caribbean Development Bank was established and a determination made for it to find its headquarters in this great land, the people and government of Barbados gave the land to the Caribbean Development Bank,” Mottley said.
“My friends, there is nothing like context to allow us to appreciate what we are doing and why we do what we are doing. And I, therefore, Professor Oramah, ask you to accept, on behalf of Afrieximbank, the offer of the government of Barbados to make available this just over two hectares of land to ensure that an investment that will bring jobs to the people of Barbados, that will bring foreign exchange to the people of Barbados, that will bring investment opportunities to the people of the region…”
Mottley noted that the building would be first and foremost a trade centre.
She asked Oramah to accept the donation, “recognising that the history of the site and the location of the site carries with it so much more than we can ever contain in a speech from this platform.
Earlier, Oramah had traced the relationship between Afreximbank and the Caribbean over the past few years.
“Putting this edifice here in Bridgetown is an honourable thing to do. It was here in Bridgetown that the spirit of self-discovery was reignited,” he said and saluted Mottley “for sustaining that spirit and being a strong and indefatigable leader of this movement”.
Oramah said the iconic twin towers of the AATC will face west “to emphasise that just as Barbados, the nearest island to Africa, was the logistic hub during the era of the infamous ‘Middle Passage’, the AATC would serve as the gateway for Afri-Caribbean trade and investments, creating opportunities for Africans doing business with the Caribbean, and for Caribbeans doing business in Africa”.
He said Afreximbank envisions two towers of 12 storeys each, subject to planning restrictions.
“The complex would include a hotel, which would help improve the supply of hotel rooms in Barbados, critical for tourism promotion.”
Oramah said the AATC will also host Afreximbank’s offices as well as office spaces for rent.
“We expect that most of the lettable spaces would be taken by Caribbean businesses as well as by African banks and businesses that are already beginning to do business in the CARICOM (region).”