Caribbean Attractive to Indian Investors

An international consultant says the Caribbean is fast becoming a major target for business and major investments from India and suggests that the investment from this South Asian country could actually dictate the pace of economic growth in the islands.

According to Loro Horta, an international consultant on Asia for the Portuguese Institute of International Relations, India has followed in the footsteps of China and invested in the Caribbean nations, “building infrastructure in exchange for the opportunity to purchase natural resources”.

“Foreign direct investments represent a large slice of the Caribbean economic pie; China and India could effectively determine the speed and direction of some nations’ growth,” he wrote in the YaleGlobal Online, the flagship publication of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization.

He pointed out that while India’s links to the Caribbean date back to the 19th century when Britain brought thousands of indigent servants from the subcontinent to work in its plantations, a new set of Indians has penetrated the Caribbean during the past five years.

“In the oil-rich nation of Trinidad and Tobago, India has emerged as one of the major economic and political actors, and by the end of 2007, Indian companies had invested US$3.4 billion in various projects across the entire spectrum of the economy,” Mr. Horta said.