New Caricom-India trade order in 2005

Addressing the first ever Caricom-India economic forum at the Centre of Excellence in Macoya last week, Indian Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, EVKS Elangovan, said the Latin American and Caribbean region remains a region of strategic importance to India, India’s bilateral trade with the region currently stands at US$3 billion and "this is poised to grow within the coming years." Elangovan said with a current Gross Domestic Product of US$685 billion, India is now the fourth largest economy in the world in purchasing power parity terms and the tenth largest in absolute terms. "In overall terms, I can say that the development in business, agriculture and services sector in India has been rather positive and encouraging and the Indian economy now inspires confidence the world over. The Government of India is committed to sustaining growth of over seven percent per annum," he declared.

History aside, Elangovan said the Caribbean remains an important economic partner to India and his government’s commercial ties are continuing to grow and "India is actively participating in various prestigious development projects in the Caribbean region." These include the computerisation of the Caricom Secretariat by Indian information technology (IT) company Tata Infotech (completed on July 31), provision of IT faculty members to the new University of Trinidad and Tobago, collaboration between Indian IT company Satyam Computer Services with the Ansa McAl Group to service the region’s information communications technology (ICT) market, construction of a large steel plant in TT and the construction of a stadium in Guyana for World Cup Cricket 2007. Elangovan also spoke about India’s roles to enhance the competitiveness of the Jamaican sugar industry and provide aid to Grenada in the wake of the devastation inflicted upon the island by Hurricane Ivan in 2004.

"We believe that this is only the beginning. There is vast potential for further cooperation in the manufacturing and services sector, apart from bilateral trade," Elangovan stated. The Indian government minister identified health, science and technology, small and medium enterprise development and tourism as the four main areas in which Caricom-India cooperation could be significantly strengthened. Focusing specifically on improving the health sectors within various Caricom nations, Elangovan said his government will be inviting Caricom health ministers to visit India later this year.

"We hope that the visit would provide the ministers with an opportunity to see first hand, the progress we have made in India in the field of health care (in areas such as primary health care, corporate hospitals and the pharmaceutical industry so that we can explore avenues for collaboration," he said. The Indian pharmaceutical trade in the Caribbean has grown over the years and in TT, that trade crossed the US$50 million mark this year. Many Indian pharmaceutical drugs have been included in Government’s Chronic Disease Assistance Programme (CDAP) which is designed to provide medication to persons affected by certain illnesses, at no cost to the patient. Health Minister John Rahael has said over 130,000 persons have benefitted from CDAP since its inception in 2003 and CDAP is one of several initiatives which is serving as an important forerunner to the establishment of long-term health initiatives such as a National Health Insurance Scheme.

Trade and Industry Minister Ken Valley underscored the important contribution which India has made to improving regional health care, noting the critical role which India plays in the provision of anti-retroviral drugs for persons living with HIV/AIDS (PWLHAs). Valley said Caricom and India could not have chosen a better time to strengthen their economic partnership given the changing demands of international trade.

He said while the Caribbean has historically been oriented (in terms of trade) towards North America and Western Europe, "we realise that the Caribbean also has South East Asian partners where there is a great potential of markets, technology and culture." "Caricom’s economic horizon is indeed expanding beyond its traditional relations," Valley observed.

Noting that World Bank data has placed India in the league of the world’s ten largest economies (US$692 billion) and the Indian economy is expected to expand at faster rate ( seven as opposed to a 6.6 percent) by March 2006, Valley said now was the time for Caricom and India to strengthen their levels of cooperation in several areas. He also spoke about India playing an important role in strengthening the region’s agriculture sector (given the current erosion of traditional preferential markets for Caribbean agricultural commodities such as sugar and bananas). The minister also hinted at the possibility of strategic alliances between Indian and Caricom business entities that "could increase the regional value of production and improve our level of competitiveness by incorporating the best productive capacities of the Greater Caribbean."

Elangovan also said the Indian government has placed credit lines in TT, Suriname and Guyana to facilitate the sourcing of Indian goods and services and project exports. "We will be happy to increase the quantum of these credit lines and offer new credit lines to other member states of Caricom too," he added.