Chamber boss, diplomats call for calm in region

RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­[email protected]

As the re­gion watch­es a rise in US mil­i­tary ac­tiv­i­ty in the Caribbean re­gion, diplo­mats meet­ing in San Fer­nan­do urged calm on Sat­ur­day night, with one busi­ness leader say­ing, “War is bad for busi­ness.”

The re­mark came from the pres­i­dent of the Greater San Fer­nan­do Cham­ber, Ki­ran Singh, dur­ing a diplo­mat­ic re­cep­tion host­ed by Colom­bian Am­bas­sador William Bush at the Roy­al Ho­tel.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia dur­ing the event, Singh said the busi­ness sec­tor re­mains fo­cused on sta­bil­i­ty and long-term re­gion­al part­ner­ships with Latin Amer­i­can coun­tries.

“So far, we haven’t had any neg­a­tive fall­out from what is hap­pen­ing be­tween the USA and Venezuela,” Singh said.

“We al­ways say war is bad for busi­ness, and we are sure that the au­thor­i­ties will do their best to en­sure the Trinidad and To­ba­go pub­lic and so­ci­ety re­main safe go­ing in­to 2026.”

Singh said the South is po­si­tion­ing it­self for deep­er com­mer­cial links with Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean.

“We want to do more south-to-south trade,” he said. “Be­cause of the US tar­iff mea­sures im­posed some time ago, trade has be­come more chal­leng­ing for the non-oil sec­tor. South-to-south trade is the way to go for ex­pand­ing the trade we cur­rent­ly have go­ing in­to 2026 and be­yond,” he added.

He not­ed that med­ical tourism in Latin Amer­i­ca was al­ready show­ing po­ten­tial.

“Those who seek im­me­di­ate, se­ri­ous surg­eries find it more ex­pen­sive to go to the north­ern part of the world. The south of­fers more com­pet­i­tive pric­ing and is more hos­pitable to its Caribbean neigh­bours. It is an at­trac­tive op­tion for ur­gent med­ical care and even cos­met­ic pro­ce­dures. South Amer­i­ca is the home for the beau­ty queens of the world, and many Trinida­di­ans will seek that pro­fes­sion­al view go­ing for­ward.”

Mean­while, Colom­bian Am­bas­sador William Bush said he de­lib­er­ate­ly chose San Fer­nan­do for the diplo­mat­ic event as part of a wider ef­fort to reach com­mu­ni­ties out­side Port-of-Spain.

“In Trinidad, we de­cid­ed to come South, so this is like Colom­bia com­ing to the South,” he said.

“We be­lieve Trinidad is a mul­ti­lat­er­al, mul­ti­cul­tur­al so­ci­ety, so we have to go in­to all the de­mo­graph­ics. To­day, we start in San Fer­nan­do, to­mor­row we will be in Cou­va or To­ba­go or San­gre Grande. We want to cov­er the whole of Trinidad, not on­ly the cap­i­tal.”

Bush de­scribed the diplo­mat­ic gath­er­ing as a re­minder of co­op­er­a­tion at a time when the re­gion is watch­ing shift­ing mil­i­tary be­hav­iour by ma­jor pow­ers.

“Events like this show love. Every­one re­spects each oth­er. No con­fronta­tion,” he said, adding that he hopes the hemi­sphere choos­es calm over con­flict.

“I just want peace. When I start­ed as a diplo­mat, I said I want­ed to stay in the West­ern Hemi­sphere. I pray. I’m not so re­li­gious, but I pray.”

Bush al­so high­light­ed on­go­ing eco­nom­ic ties be­tween Trinidad and Colom­bia.

“We have a free trade agree­ment with Cari­com and a lot of Trinidad com­pa­nies in­vest­ing in Colom­bia,” he said. “Massy and Lok Jack are some of them. More than five big com­pa­nies are pro­duc­ing jobs in Colom­bia.”

He not­ed that Colom­bia con­tin­ues to at­tract Caribbean pa­tients.

“Every week we have pa­tients go­ing to Colom­bia for med­ical treat­ment from Trinidad and the whole Caribbean.”

Mean­while, Venezue­lan Am­bas­sador Ál­varo En­rique Sánchez Cordero said de­spite the geopo­lit­i­cal ten­sion, re­gion­al re­la­tions re­main steady. He not­ed that com­mer­cial and com­mu­ni­ty ac­tiv­i­ty in his coun­try re­mains sta­ble.

“Busi­ness is nor­mal, and life goes on as usu­al in Venezuela,” he told at­ten­dees.

He al­so said diplo­mat­ic ties be­tween Venezuela, Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean re­main in­tact, de­spite pub­lic con­cerns about ris­ing mil­i­tary move­ments in the hemi­sphere.

The event was at­tend­ed by the am­bas­sadors of Ko­rea, Sei­joong Kwon, Cu­ba’s Gus­ta­vo Daniel Vél­iz Oli­vares, Spain’s María Cristi­na Pérez Gutiér­rez, the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic’s Raquel Jose­fi­na Ja­cobo Jaar, Pana­ma’s Diomedes Her­a­clio Car­les Cleghorn, Chile’s Hernán Núñez Mon­tene­gro, and the High Com­mis­sion­er of Ghana, William Anani-Abot­si. Min­is­ter of Health Dr Lack­ram Bo­doe al­so at­tend­ed.