Barbados has established diplomatic relations with Ghana with the establishment of a high commission there.
Juliette Bynoe-Sutherland is the first resident High Commissioner to Ghana.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Kerrie Symmonds, speaking yesterday during the flag-raising ceremony as part of the third Africa-CARICOM Day, held on the grounds of Government Headquarters, Bay Street, St Michael, told the audience the current administration was responsible for expanding Barbados’ diplomatic footprint in Africa.
“When we came to office in 2018, there was no Barbadian representation in the Republic of Kenya or Accra, Ghana. Since that time, we have built diplomatic relations with 14 new member states of the African Union (AU). I [also] want to notify you formally that on September 4, our first resident high commissioner to Ghana assumed office in Accra,” he said.
Symmonds said Bynoe-Sutherland had backgrounds in health and development and had recently served as the chief executive officer of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, adding she had overseen more than 200 Ghanaian nurses coming to Barbados during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The minister, touching on the issue of nurses, said while the contracts of those nurses had expired, there was a small delegation in Ghana negotiating the sourcing of specialist nurses which Barbados needed.
“[We want] to build out a more robust and resilient nursing workforce to better serve the needs of this country in areas such as paediatric nursing care, medicinal surgical nursing care and psychiatric nursing care – those are areas where we have shortages and critical need and we are again having discussions with Ghana with a view to filling in that need,” he said.
Symmonds said the AU is comprised of 55 sovereign states and is projected to have an economic value of more than US$6.5 trillion, saying the scale of opportunities and financial prospects open to Barbados by inserting itself into business and commercial relationships with Africa was too vast to ignore.
“For too long, successive Governments in this region have allowed these opportunities to go a-begging. We are pleased to announce there is a MOU in draft towards a free trade agreement between CARICOM and the AU. It’s just a question of finding the right moment to ink the paper,” he said.
Symmonds said only three per cent of the region’s trade went to Africa which meant there was an “abundance of opportunity” available.
“It is not beyond any of us to grasp the opportunity, to deepen the linkages, and to make sure that we do our very best in terms of our relationship with this continent, so full of potential. I want to assure you that the Government of Barbados will do everything in its power to make sure that we have the resources, that we continue to build the bridges and the relationships so as to enable our enterprises and our people to reach into the continent of Africa and to flourish. I want to urge you to enjoy this day to the fullest and see us again next year as we are able to report more progress,” he said. ( CA)
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