Prime Minister Freundel Stuart wants to see an increase in Barbados’ exports to the Republic of El Salvador.
Stuart expressed this wish last Friday when Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of El Salvador, Raymundo Rodriguez Diaz, paid him a courtesy call at Government Headquarters.
He told the Ambassador: “We do some trade with El Salvador. We do not export as much to El Salvador as we should be doing…and we look forward, of course, to achieving some balance in our trading relationship.”
Explaining that Barbados’ economy is driven by tourism, the Prime Minister said that even though El Salvador was not too far away from this country, there was no contact by air between Barbados and Central America. “And, we really want to lay the foundation for a closer relationship between Central America and Barbados. But, we can only do that if we get an Air Services Agreement in place and that is something we would be prepared to talk to you about.
“We want to see Salvadoreans coming here and enjoying our hospitality, getting to know us better and we want to see Barbadians going to El Salvador. That is an issue we can talk about at some time [because] the entire Barbados-Central American relationship is very important to us,” Stuart stressed.
Barbados’ diplomatic relationship with El Salvador dates back to 1994 and the Prime Minister said he was very pleased that decision had been taken to forge ties.
Ambassador Rodriguez said his country was interested in strengthening its relations with Barbados, suggesting opportunities in the areas of diplomacy and economics could be explored.
The Envoy added that Barbados had some experience in the area of climate change that his country could tap into and Prime Minister Stuart indicated both countries could collaborate to find solutions to the challenges posed by this issue.
During the meeting, they also discussed investment in the hotel sector, and the importance of the Caribbean Sea to Small Island Developing States, among other areas.
Ambassador Rodriguez resides in Trinidad and Tobago.
