11th June 2019

China-Russia relations offer lifeline to the Caribbean

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By CNN

Washington, USA – At the opening of Caribbean legislative week on Capitol Hill, June 5, Antigua and Barbuda’s ambassador to the United States, Sir Ronald Sanders, stated “China offers Caribbean countries a lifeline for development in the absence of others.”

“Caribbean countries have welcomed Chinese investment, including loans from the government of China, not because they wish to displace traditional friends or to diminish their valued relations, but because China offers a lifeline for development in the absence of others.”

“We would be ducking an important issue if we did not note the expressed unhappiness in some quarters by the presence of the Peoples Republic of China as a partner in the economic development of the Caribbean,” Sanders continued.

“Without China’s investment over the last decade, the Caribbean region, as in Latin America, would have stagnated, if not reversed,” Sanders explained: “Typically, Chinese government loans are for 20 years at two percent interest and because of them, Caribbean countries have been able to build infrastructures, such as seaports, airports, low-cost housing, roads and schools. No other government, nor commercial or development bank offers such beneficial terms,” he said.

Pertaining to concerns expressed by US government representatives about China’s involvement in the Caribbean, Sir Ronald explained that, “Today, the majority of CARICOM countries are stable democracies. But these conditions are only sustainable in conditions of sustained development.”

Meanwhile in Moscow, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Gaston Browne attending the St Petersburg Economic conference, participated in the signing ceremony for the Visa Waiver- Visa Free agreement with Russian Foreign Minister H.E Sergei Lavrov.

Collaboration between Russian and Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has been a key driver of increasing economic relations between the two nations in recent years; an aim that is estimated to grow thanks to e-commerce, technology and expanding assistance for SMEs from each country.

Bilateral trade exceeded US$100 billion for the first time in 2018, a 27.8 percent year-on-year gain that recorded an all-time high. The SMEs and private sector from both sides represented an essential purpose in the surge in trade, with small businesses profiting from better China-Russia relations and collaboration in industries such as e-commerce.

Online exports of Russian products grew by 36 percent in 2018 to US $746 million, according to The Moscow Times. Just two years prior, only 0.3 percent of Russian SMEs were utilising the internet to trade their products.

According to a report by the Gaidar Institute, the prospect for Russian SMEs looking to trade their products online overseas is bright. The whole Russian e-commerce market could be worth US $43 billion by 2024.

Cross-border economic collaboration zones, such as the Heilongjiang-Blagoveshchensk zone, are encouraging closer brick-and-mortar trade and collaboration between Chinese and Russian SMEs.

According to Global Times, most of the businesses in a cross-border import and export industrial park in Heihe, northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province are SMEs, with cargo volume in the first half of 2017 hitting 175,000 tons.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has designated 2024 as a breakthrough year for Russia’s SMEs, with state businesses set to boost spending on goods and services from SMEs to 5 trillion rubles annually (US $76.9 billion).

Beijing and Moscow have both promised more meaningful assistance for SMEs and the private sector in recent years. Further to that strategy, China has proclaimed various measures this year to facilitate access to funding and cut expenses for SMEs, with Premier Li Keqiang stating “when SMEs are vibrant, our economy will bloom as well.”

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