Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

A del­e­ga­tion of pub­lic and pri­vate sec­tor of­fi­cials from Venezuela’s Su­cre State will vis­it Trinidad and To­ba­go next week to ex­plore eco­nom­ic part­ner­ships, trade and in­vest­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties, and strength­en bi­lat­er­al ties be­tween the two coun­tries.

The vis­it, an­nounced by the press of­fice of the Venezue­lan Em­bassy in Trinidad and To­ba­go, will take place from Mon­day to Wednes­day and will in­clude a cul­tur­al gala and a busi­ness round­table.

Ac­cord­ing to an em­bassy state­ment, the vis­it is aimed at “deep­en­ing the bonds of friend­ship and co­op­er­a­tion be­tween Venezuela and Trinidad and To­ba­go,” with a spe­cif­ic fo­cus on eco­nom­ic part­ner­ship and cul­tur­al ex­change.

“This vis­it pro­vides an op­por­tu­ni­ty to con­nect our busi­ness com­mu­ni­ties, strength­en cul­tur­al ties and iden­ti­fy prac­ti­cal ar­eas for co­op­er­a­tion. We look for­ward to dis­cus­sions that can lead to last­ing part­ner­ships and new op­por­tu­ni­ties for both coun­tries,” the em­bassy added.

The pro­ceed­ings will be­gin with a cul­tur­al gala on Mon­day at 6 pm at Mille Fleurs, Port-of-Spain.

The evening will fea­ture a spe­cial per­for­mance by Er­ic Cotúa, a Venezue­lan mu­si­cian from Su­cre State.

As a sym­bol of the en­dur­ing cul­tur­al ties be­tween the two na­tions, the del­e­ga­tion will con­clude the gala by do­nat­ing a col­lec­tion of Venezue­lan cu­a­tros to var­i­ous cul­tur­al or­gan­i­sa­tions in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

The em­bassy said the ges­ture aims to sup­port lo­cal cul­tur­al de­vel­op­ment and cel­e­brate the coun­tries’ shared mu­si­cal her­itage.

On Tues­day, the del­e­ga­tion will par­tic­i­pate in a busi­ness round­table at the Hilton Trinidad in part­ner­ship with the T&T En­er­gy Cham­ber.

Dis­cus­sions will fo­cus on iden­ti­fy­ing prac­ti­cal op­por­tu­ni­ties for co­op­er­a­tion in sev­er­al ar­eas, in­clud­ing trade and com­merce, with em­pha­sis on mar­ket ac­cess, ex­port op­por­tu­ni­ties, busi­ness part­ner­ships and in­vest­ment.

Mar­itime con­nec­tiv­i­ty will al­so be on the agen­da, in­clud­ing ship­ping links, port ser­vices, lo­gis­tics and mar­itime busi­ness op­por­tu­ni­ties.

In tourism, dis­cus­sions will ex­plore joint pro­mo­tion, trav­el con­nec­tions, tourism in­vest­ment and ex­changes be­tween in­dus­try op­er­a­tors.

The del­e­ga­tion will al­so ex­am­ine op­por­tu­ni­ties in cul­ture and the cre­ative in­dus­tries, in­clud­ing cul­tur­al ex­changes, fes­ti­vals, cre­ative en­ter­prise and op­por­tu­ni­ties for artists and cul­tur­al or­gan­i­sa­tions.

Su­cre State, lo­cat­ed on Venezuela’s north­ern coast, has an econ­o­my based on fish­ing, agri­cul­ture and tourism. Its pop­u­la­tion is al­most the size of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s.

The State is well known to some Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­als, par­tic­u­lar­ly its cap­i­tal Cumana and its port towns of Guiria and Caru­pano.