The maiden AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum (ACTIF) aimed at boosting trade and investment between Africa and the Caribbean will be held in the Republic of Barbados.  

Slated for September 1-3, 2022 it is being convened by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) in collaboration with African Union Commission (AUC), African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, Africa Business Council, the Caribbean Community Secretariat, and Caribbean Export Development Agency.

Dubbed AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum 2022, it will be held under the theme “One People, One Destiny. Uniting and Reimagining Our Future”.

A media advisory issued by  Afreximbank yesterday said the main goal of the forum was to provide a platform for the development of strategic partnerships between the business communities in Africa and the CARICOM Region with the objective of fostering bilateral cooperation and engagement in trade, investment, technology transfer, innovation, tourism, culture and other services.

The Forum according to the advisory would also be used as a vehicle to actively promote trade and investment opportunities among people of Africa and the Caribbean, as well as the wider diaspora which would contribute to the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) and to the Caribbean trade development agenda.

“African and Caribbean ties are deep rooted and based on shared history, culture, and sense of a common identity and destiny that was forged by the slave trade creating large centres of African Diaspora in the Caribbean and elsewhere.

Today, while Africa and the Caribbean have renewed their engagement, with a Heads of State and Government Summit of the Caribbean Community and Africa, held on September 7, 2021, the relationship needs to be institutionalised through deepening of trade and investment ties between the two regions,” it said.

It said “the holding of the inaugural Africa-Caribbean Trade and Investment Forum is therefore a key strategic deliverable towards the institutionalisation of the reborn relationship between Africa and the Caribbean.”

This Forum according to the advisory would further consolidate the political agreement reached by Heads of State and Government of the Caribbean Community and aimed to strengthen collaboration, unity and to foster increased trade, investment and people-to-people engagement between the two regions.

BY DAVID ADADEVOH