Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan last week announcing that China will set up an earmarked commercial loan of US$1 billion for the co-operation projects on infrastructure construction in the Caribbean is just the start of China gaining a foothold in the region. Qishan was speaking at the Third China-Caribbean Economic and Trade Co-operation held at the Hyatt Regency Trinidad Hotel, Port-of-Spain. In August, Dr Adam Wu, chief operating officer of China Business Network, delivered an important speech about Chinese invest overseas at the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Investment Conference in Montego Bay, Jamaica. The Chinese government has already made several substantial direct investments and aims to do more, Wu said.
"There's no myth to the reasons for the Chinese interest in the Caribbean," Wu said. "Diplomacy and geopolitics lead to trade and investment." Wu held out both a carrot and a stick to the delegates. The primary carrot is billions in investment dollars (US$7 billion in the Caribbean in 2009 alone) for a wide range of tourism and non-tourism projects, ranging from shipping ports to highways to cricket stadiums.
In tourism, the Chinese have pledged US$2.4 billion in financing for the 3,800-room Bahia Mar Resort in the Bahamas. The recently opened Montego Bay Convention Centre was financed by the Chinese government and built by a Chinese construction company. As to the stick, Wu hinted the Chinese could wield is political. Noting that 12 of the 23 countries in the world that still recognise the legitimacy of the government of Taiwan are in the Caribbean and Central America, Wu said, "those countries that do the right thing will be able to attract even more investment."
Yet in a tone that was either conciliatory or contradictory, he added, "Lack of diplomatic relationships has not stopped Chinese from investing in or visiting those destinations. As an example, he cited a Chinese commitment to invest US$462 million in Punta Perla, a stalled beachfront resort in the Dominican Republic, a country that still recognises Taiwan and doesn't have diplomatic relations with China. In his address opening the conference, Jamaica's Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett said the Caribbean held its own in attracting investment during the recent global economic downturn, adding that much of that investment came from emerging economies, especially China. "China has already invested in tourism facilities in the Bahamas, and they're now looking at Jamaica, said Bartlett. "I can't say what or where, but keep your eyes open.
Another carrot Wu dangled before the tourism executives at the conference is the prospect of an influx of Chinese tourists to the Caribbean. The numbers are compelling: The Chinese outbound travel market grew by 20.4 per cent in 2010. Wu cited a Boston Consulting Group study that forecast a US$590 billion outbound travel market by 2020. Put another way, Wu said 100 million Chinese will be traveling internationally by 2015, compared to 57 million in 2010. Wu said the Chinese tend to travel in groups and like to sightsee and visit multiple destinations. A typical Chinese tourist will spend up to US$6,000 per trip. Finally, he offered some tips to hoteliers and other tourist providers on how to serve the Chinese market:
"Convey your message in Chinese. While 100 million middle-class Chinese families have the means to travel overseas, only ten million people, or 0.7 per cent of the population, can speak English. "It's the best to market online. Most Chinese travel professionals depend on the Internet to research and book travel. There are more Internet users in China (457 million) than the United States has in total population (311 million). "The Chinese population doesn't generally have access to the Internet accessed by the rest of the world, so marketers need to use the China Wide Web, the country' s own Internet.
(china-invests.net)
