Antigua and Barbuda wants to take advantage of the several bilateral meetings held
this week on the margins of the Fourth International Conference of Small Island
Developing States (SIDS4) to seek training opportunities for nationals.
Foreign Affairs Minister E.P Chet Greene has been meeting with representatives of
the various delegations and agencies that are attending the SIDS4 conference
which concludes at the American University of Antigua today.
During these discussions, Minister Greene has emphasized two main themes that
will benefit Antigua and Barbuda in the long run; support for the Centre of
Excellence – Data Hub that will be established here as one of the outcomes of the
conference as well as training courses to upskill nationals in the areas of
agriculture and diplomacy.
On Wednesday, discussions were held with the representative of Romania who is
offering immediate courses in those areas. In fact, the Romanian representative is
asking the ministry of foreign affairs to name an individual almost immediately so
that arrangements can be made for that person to begin studies within the next few
months.
In discussions with the Foreign Minister of Singapore, Greene noted that the
southeast Asian country stands as a model for SIDS, such as Antigua and Barbuda
to follow.
According to Minister Greene…SIDS lag behind developed countries in terms of
the use of data and other research material. He said the Centre of Excellence –
Data Hub will go a long way to reduce or eliminate the gap in data usage.
The Singaporean Minister in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Education, Dr.
Mohammad Maliki Osman said his country had announced a policy; SIDS for
Change, through which it will offer training to these countries in a variety or areas.
He said there are training programmes for developing countries to take advantage
of in areas such as Artificial Intelligence, e-commerce, cyber security, and
digitalization.
Minister Greene promised the Singapore official that Antigua and Barbuda is eager
to accept the offers. Notes were exchanged for later discussion on these issues.
With the representative from India, Foreign Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, Kavan Kapoor, Minister Greene noted that both India and Antigua and
Barbuda have enjoyed excellent relations in the past and he thanked India for the
many areas of assistance, including during the COVID-19 pandemic when India
provided vaccines to this country.
On the issue of training, the Indian representative expressed his country’s desire to
continue to offer training for Antigua and Barbuda nationals in agriculture,
diplomacy, fisheries and technologies.
In accepting the offers of training, Minister Greene suggested the possibilities of
experts from India traveling to St. John’s to conduct such training through a
programme with the University of the West Indies FIC. This way, he noted, more
people would be exposed to the training adding that they could be compacted to
cover a shorter time frame.
“Given the current state of the world, with conflicts in Ukraine and in Gaza, there
is a need for more of our people to be trained in the area of diplomacy,” the
minister noted.
