Barbados seems poised to receive substantial tourist arrivals and investment from China.Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Maxine McClean, indicated this yesterday during an address to the 55th annual conference of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP).McClean said that in its new diplomatic initiative Barbados had gained “a very positive” response from both Chinese investors and prospective travellers and this was expected to translate into a boost in arrivals and in Chinese investment.According to McClean, at least a million Chinese had passed through the CARICOM pavilion at the Shanghai annual tourist exposition and many of these would have learnt about Barbados.She also said that coming out of a series of business workshops hosted by Invest Barbados, it was clear that some Chinese were “looking at Barbados as a potential place for investment”.McClean described China as an addition to the Barbados diplomatic network that was loaded with potential, given the large amount of disposable income the Chinese have, their keenness on travelling and the fact that the country has about 700 000 millionaires.She told the gathering the prediction was that in a decade China would become the number one economy in the world.She dismissed former Prime Minister Owen Arthur’s complaint that Barbados was “taking a slow boat to China”.She said that “the speed with which we were able to get there and make an impression, a slow boat would not have done it”.“For a small place, Barbados has an excellent reputation internationally,” she told party members and supporters.
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