SUNS  4138  Tuesday  27  January  1998

Trade: Caribbean moves closer to South Africa



Georgetown, Jan 23 (IPS/Bert Wilkinson) -- Many Caribbean leaders were at the forefront of the liberation struggle in South Africa from the 1970s until the day Nelson Mandela was elected President in 1994. Guyana's late President, Forbes Burnham made little secret of the fact that he sent military hardware and contributed US$ 50,000 annually to the freedom struggle of the Black population.

Scholarships were also awarded to several South African students to attend the University of Guyana and other tertiary institutions in the region.

Regional governments came together to ensure South Africa was isolated from international sports and helped to draw up a blacklist of sports persons who both played in or visited South Africa during its days of apartheid.

In fact, Guyana refused to allow the English cricket team to play here on its 1981 tour because Robin Jackman, an English cricketer and member of that team, had played there. The local leg of the tour was called off amid all the controversy.

Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Barbados also pushed the Commonwealth into drawing up the Glen Eagles Accord which included an official ban on sports persons and others who did business with the then apartheid regime.

The result is that relations between South Africa and the Caribbean have always been close. Predictions are that those relations are about to become even closer when a delegation from the region sets off for that country next week to look at the possibilities for trade and investment.

The team of more than 50 is headed there at the invitation of the South African government. The five-day visit starts Monday. Botswana is also on the agenda.

"We are going to look at several business opportunities," says Leonard Robertson, spokesman for the Guyana-based Caribbean Community (Caricom) secretariat. "There is a special relationship between the Caribbean and South Africa and the region hopes to capitalise on this."

>From all indications, the visit will bring reciprocal benefits.

For one thing, Mandela's governing African National Congress (ANC) government is facing mounting pressure from an increasingly restless Black population for an improvement in their standard of living, in particular in obtaining better housing.

Realising that American, European and other first world companies will eventually offer projects to government, but South African authorities have turned to the Caribbean to ensure that this region will be one of the first to cash in on any lucrative investment deals, observers say.

"The South Africans see this as an opportunity to pay back the Caribbean," says Robertson. " They want a business relationship with the Caribbean on a permanent footing," notes Robertson, a key member of the delegation. At first glance, the region appears to have little to offer a large country like South Africa, with its well developed mining, tourism and financial services industries.

But two areas stand out immediately. Listed to travel with the Caribbean delegation is Henry Sealey, the former head of a thriving Trinidad and Tobago's Unit Trust Corporation. He is expected to advise them on setting up similar financial institutions to help kick start micro business enterprises among Blacks deprived for years of such opportunities due to the domination of the financial services by White South Africans.
On the other hand Kairi Consultants Ltd. of Trinidad and Tobago is set to play a key role in building hundreds of low cost housing units in depressed areas. Kairi has also been assisting the Caricom Secretariat in planning the trip and could be the first in the Caribbean to gain contracts in the housing sector. In terms of South African assistance to the Caribbean, regional officials hope to at least be able to dip into that country's booming tourism sector as a means of bolstering the region's own in the face of increasing competition from other world destinations.

Regional officials have been urging South African Airways which flies to Miami to add a Caribbean leg to its itinerary.

Jean Holder, head of the Barbados-based Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) has long been talking about the need to expand the regional tourist market, making it less dependent on North America.

Of the 13 million visitors to CTO destinations annually, more than seven million are Americans, but officials have noticed decline in recent years. This, they have attributed to the fact that more Americans are taking holidays in that country.

Guyana, Suriname and Jamaica could also benefit from the country's experience in mining. In fact, a South African team was in Guyana last year exploring opportunities in this area.

"Mining and tourism and housing are going to play important roles in the visit. These are likely to dominate discussions," says Robertson.

"I think there could be bustling business between countries in the Guyana shield and South Africa... The Guyana shield is known to have a lot of minerals and these could be tapped," said William Woolford, Deputy Chief Geology and Mines Commissioner in South Africa on a recent visit to Guyana.

Caricom Secretary General Edwin Carrington visited South Africa in November 1995, while Mandela sent Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister, Derek Hanekom to the Caricom summit held in Barbados in 1996 to hold talks with regional leaders.

Last March, the South African Development Council sent Secretary General Kaire Mbuende and a mission to the region for follow-up talks. These events paved the way for next week's visit, observers say.