Chief Minister, Osbourne Fleming, and Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Tourism, Victor Banks, told reporters on Monday that the agreement which the Anguilla delegation signed in London last week with the Chinese Business Network (CBN) was for tourism promotion only. They gave the hasty explanation at the Chief Minister’s press conference in response to opposition charges and public fears that under the agreement local businesses would be at risk and eventually the island “would be swamped” by competing Chinese business investments.

Hon. Osbourne Fleming and Hon. Victor Banks

Mr. Fleming explained that for some time now the Government had been targeting the tourism marketplace in the United Kingdom, parts of Europe, the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean, but it was now felt that the island’s marketing efforts should extend further afield. As a consequence the Government had begun to look at China, a very progressive country, where fifty million Chinese were now engaged in leisure travel, with the hope of attracting many of them to Anguilla. The Chief Minister said it was with that in mind that the Anguillian delegation had signed the agreement with the Chinese Business Network.

“When I came back here and read the paper and saw that Mr. Hughes [the Opposition Member] said that we were bringing Chinese in Anguilla to take over the businesses of Anguillians, I [thought] that this was very unfortunate,” Mr. Fleming stated. “What bothered me most is that a number of people have called me on it and asked ‘is that what you are doing?’ I explained that we are looking at increasing our tourism arrivals and, in addition, there are Chinese who have invested all over the world in hotels…and we would like to try that type of investment in tourism projects and so on.

“These Chinese are not coming here to open any rum shop or any supermarket. We are not allowing that. We have a number of Chinese establishments in Anguilla as we all know… and ninety-five percent of the Chinese business in Anguilla is registered to Anguillians and I know them by name. So it is not that we are going to encourage Chinese to come here and open shops or engage in any [other] local business, but to encourage Chinese clientele as well to come to Anguilla because they have money…to invest in the area of tourism. I hope this would be communicated to the people.”

Mr. Banks stressed that the rumour surrounding the signing of the Chinese Business Network Agreement was of great concern to him. “The Chinese Network Agreement is a tourism promotion and marketing agreement,” he affirmed. “I was surprised and astounded when I came back to Anguilla and read in the paper that the Government of Anguilla went to the United Kingdom and signed with the Chinese Government an agreement relating to bringing Chinese businessmen into Anguilla to be involved in Anguillian businesses. Nothing is further from the truth and I think it is sad that elected officials…especially of longstanding, like Mr. Hubert Hughes, should indulge in this kind of petty fear-mongering to the wider community.”

Mr. Banks said the Anguilla Government had recognised, as other destinations, that the future dispensation would definitely include the Chinese who had a very positive trade balance with the United States and some 3.6 trillion US dollars in reserves. “It is necessary for them to use those dollars to shore up their nation internationally so therefore they would invest in all parts of the world,” he went on.

“In addition the Chinese people have been travelling. They have a very wealthy middle and upper class of people, somewhere in the region of fifty million, who are travelling on an annual basis. It is anticipated that by the year 2015, one hundred million Chinese will travel. These travellers want to know destinations throughout the world and the Chinese Business Network has been very interested in Anguilla as a destination. They have heard about Anguilla and want as an orgnisation to encourage travel to the Caribbean and have approached us as Anguilla is one of the Caribbean destinations they would want to promote.

“One of the things about Chinese travellers and businesses is that they speak the Chinese languages so the agreement with the Chinese Business Network is to translate the promotion material from this destination in the Chinese languages. We will pay this organisation a very minimum fee of 5,500 pounds to be registered on their website. They will translate Anguilla’s promotion on their website and maintain it over a period. They will also invite persons from the Anguilla Ministry of Tourism to visit China and speak with groups who are interested in travel to this region. They can also translate our promotional material in other languages, as well as they also target Spanish, Indian and Vietnamese jurisdictions in the eastern hemisphere. It opens up and expands our scope… so that we can explore and exploit it for the Anguilla tourism industry.

“We cannot continue to only target North America and Europe. There are emerging nations which have a very strong travel population which we also must target. China has maybe two billion people and if five percent of them, a hundred million, travel, and at this time they have about fifty million travelling, this is a market that we cannot afford to neglect.” Mr. Banks noted that a number of other regional islands competing with Anguilla had signed similar Chinese agreements for tourism promotion.
He continued: “In addition the statement was made that we are encouraging Chinese business to Anguilla. The fact is that we don’t need to sign an agreement with China for Chinese businessmen to invest in Anguilla. Businessmen from any part of the world can invest in Anguilla in those areas where we allow investment…You don’t need an agreement to make that possible but we must recognise the fact that the Chinese have 3.6 trillion dollars in reserves. If they don’t utilise them internationally it is quite possible that as the dollar devalues the value of that 3.6 trillion dollars would also devalue. So it is best to put that money into real development and therefore they want to invest not only in Anguilla but in other parts of the world.”

The Anguilla Minister disclosed that the agreement with the Chinese Business Network was for one year in the first instance. “We had wished to test it and do a six-month trial which would be valued at 3,950 pounds, but they encouraged us to do the full year and pay it in half-yearly installments and we can decide after six months whether we want to carry on with the agreement,” he added. “We have seen the work they have done and we believe it is very beneficial to the Government of Anguilla. The agreement is mainly focused on tourism and on being able to respond to investment that is coming from that part of the world in areas where we allow investment internationally.”

| Printer-friendly page | Send this article to a friend |

World News