In the communique presented at the end of the Forum, the partners pledged the concrete implementation of strategic partnership between the business communities in Africa and the Caribbean with the objective of fostering bilateral cooperation and engagement in trade, investment, technology transfer, innovation, transport, tourism, culture and other services.

The signing of the Partnership Agreement between Afreximbank and seven Caribbean States will usher in investments to concretise the commercial relations between the two regions, with an immediate focus on establishing an air bridge, and business to business match-making through the newly established African-Caribbean Business Council.

They stressed the critical importance of enhancing investment and trade for economic and social transformation in line with the Forum’s theme of “One People, One Destiny: Uniting and reimagining our future”.

The Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Amor MottleyMottley, said that key goals had been achieved through ACTIF2022, adding, “What matters is not so much the subject area, but the attitude and approach, one for collaboration and two for de-risking, that we come now to today’s moment to be able to deal with. And that is the importance of today’s inaugural AfriCaribben Trade and Investment Forum because it allows us to see how we can work together to unlock those very difficult issues that have only been made worse, regrettably by matters beyond our control.”