Members of the advance team from the Wallonia Foreign Trade and Investment Agency, Emanuelle Dienga (left) and Bernard Geenen (right), flank Belgian ambassador to Jamaica, Frederic Meurice, during a visit to the Embassy of Belgium on Millsborough Crescent, St Andrew, on Wednesday. - Peta-Gaye Clachar/Freelance Photographer

In preparation for a full Belgian trade mission due in Jamaica at year end, an advance team from the Wallonia Foreign Trade and Investment Agency (AWEX) in Belgium arrived this week to scout out possibilities for partnership and investment.

Led by Emanuelle Dienga and Bernard Geenen of AWEX, representatives of the Belgian government agency in charge of foreign trade promotion and foreign investment attraction, the advance team's mission is research and discussions on market conditions and prospects for investment.

Geenen sees opportunity for export of a range of Jamaican spices, sauces, canned fruits, processed cocoa and coffee, among other products.

Increase business links

The aim of the mission, he said, is to increase business linkages between the European state and Jamaica.

Belgian ambassador to Jamaica, Frederic Meurice, says that while Belgium's involvement in Jamaica has intensified during the last five to six years, bilateral trade between the two nations remains "ridiculously low".

In 2008, Jamaican exports to Belgium amounted to less than US$2 million (J$160 million) of mostly processed food products while Belgian exports to Jamaica hovered at US$45 million (J$3.6 billion), largely buses and transportation equipment.

"This needs to change," the ambassador said.

Noting that Belgium could be the platform for the entry of Jamaican products to Europe, trade representative Geenen said that out of the meetings with Jamaica Trade and Invest (JTI), other agencies and sectoral interests, the advance team would be preparing guidelines for the December mission.

He said he would also be presenting Jamaica to Belgian companies in search of joint ventures, partnerships, producers of goods and services and others looking to expand the range of products they distribute.

The AWEX representatives noted that, previously, Belgium had looked to Central Africa and French-speaking territories for business opportunities, but in 2009 the Caribbean was identified as an area to be explored. The advance mission also went to Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic.

Willing to embrace business

"In this part of the world there are great democracies which are doing quite well and showing great willingness to embrace business," Geenen said.

The delegation in December will be led by the head of AWEX.

The Belgian Embassy will facilitate a workshop on doing business in Jamaica. The Belgians will also hold talks with several local companies who are interested in doing business in Belgium.

"Everything will be pre-arranged with the help of the JTI," Geenen said.

Belgium, according to Meurice, boasts a track record of involvement in the Jamaican transport sector, in maritime development and in port dredging.

But Belgium's most public influence stands in Half-Way Tree, Kingston, in the form of the bus park, the city's most imposing and modern architecture built by a Belgian contractor and co-financed by a Belgian loan.

Even more visible are the Belgian-built buses.

Since 1995, when a first batch of 15 arrived, nearly 300 buses and coaches built by the Belgian company VDL Jonckheere have been delivered to Jamaica. The latest arrivals - in early 2009 - are a customised yellow.

Meurice notes as well that a recently signed contract will provide another 200 more state-of-the-art vehicles.

The Kingston-based Caribbean Maritime Institute and its Belgian counterpart, the Antwerp Maritime Academy, have developed a training partnership under which instructors come to Jamaica each year to provide Caribbean and South American cadets with courses in the latest seafaring techniques.

The two institutes have also established exchange programmes between their respective teaching forces, and cadets from the Jamaican institute are also offered internships aboard EXMAR vessels and several have found permanent employment with the Belgian -based transporter, Meurice said.

Bids presented

For the Falmouth Cruise Pier Terminal, Jan De Nul, Dredging International and Besix presented bids and offers to the Port Authority of Jamaica to undertake the works necessary to prepare the pier to receive some of the world's biggest cruise ships in 2010, but did not win the contracts, according to the ambassador.

But "they bear testimony of Belgian interest for this kind of project in Jamaica," said Meurice.

Back in 2002, Jan De Nul was contracted to dredge the harbour of Kingston, a project that was backed by concessionary financing from Belgium.

Meurice said the upcoming trade mission organised by the Walloon Trade Office should unearth more opportunities for developing bilateral trade relations and point to ways in which Jamaican products can get better access to Belgian and European markets.

The last Belgian trade mission was in March 2009.

AWEX has a worldwide network of 105 economic and trade attachés providing economic data on Wallonia - a region of Belgium - and its export potential, disseminating information on products and services from companies and also offering a wide range of export-oriented services.

avia.collinder@gleanerjm.com