President Uhuru Kenyatta and Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley (third left) witness the signing of three agreements in Bridgetown on Wednesday. [PSCU]
Kenya and Barbados have signed three key bilateral agreements for cooperation in aviation, environmental conservation, trade and investment.
President Uhuru Kenyatta and Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley witnessed the signing of an air services agreement, a memorandum of agreement on the development of the national botanical garden of Barbados, and another one on the establishment of a joint committee on trade and investment, in Bridgetown on Wednesday.
Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Raychelle Omamo signed the three agreements on behalf of Kenya while ministers Lisa Cummins (Tourism and International Transport), Dr Adrian Forde (Environment and National Beautification) and Dr Jerome Walcott (Foreign Affairs And Foreign Trade) represented Barbados.
Speaking at a meeting that preceded a business forum between the Kenyan business community representatives and their Barbadian counterparts on the second day of his official visit to the Caribbean island country, President Kenyatta expressed optimism that the agreements will strengthen bilateral ties between the two nations.
READ MORE
KenGen seeks funding for 1,500MW project
HIV and HPV take devastating toll on homosexuals in Kenya
United approach urged for safer roads through African Road Safety Charter
The president said Kenya and Barbados have steadily been working together to enhance cooperation between Africa and the Caribbean Community and Common Market (Caricom), citing the first Africa-Caricom Summit held virtually on September 7.
“Together, we started and spearheaded the need to have the very first ever African-Caricom Summit that was supposed to be held on the sidelines of CHOGM last year. Unfortunately, due to Covid-19, we were not able to do so," he said.
“But again banking on the resilience of our two countries, we still managed this year to hold that first Africa-Caricom Summit where we had participation of all our regional economic communities (RECs) of our continent together with leaders of Caricom,” he added.
Kenyatta said Kenya and Barbados are focused on deepening people-to-people interactions, and it was the people who could turn the good relations between the two countries into profitable and meaningful relationships.
Mottley said the large number of members of the Kenyan private sector who attended the business forum in Barbados signified the seriousness the two countries have in strengthening their economic ties.
