CaribPR Wire

Mr. Xiaoguang Liu, consul in charge of economic & commercial affairs of the Consulate General of China in New York addressing delegates at Invest Caribbean Now 2013. (Hayden Roger Celestin image)

CaribPR Wire, NEW YORK, NY, Mon. May 19, 2014: A top level delegation comprising of officials from the Beijing government, the World Tourism Cities Federation, as well as the Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development and China Daily, will travel to New York this June 4^th for the biggest global investment summit on the Caribbean outside the region, Invest Caribbean Now, (ICN).

The delegation is being brought to ICN by partnering groups, The Chinese American Business Development Center of New York and The Sino-American Friendship Association, and will include Dr. Ma, Lin, the Deputy Secretary-General of the Beijing Municipal Government with responsibility for science, information technology, tourism, software development, education in Beijing and Mr. Cao, PengChen, vice chairman of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development.

Invest Caribbean Now is set for June 4th, 2014 from 11:30 a.m. at the prestigious Harvard Club in New York City where the topics for discussion will include a focus on “Beijing-Caribbean Tourism and Investment Opportunities.”

The Chinese American Business Development Center of New York and its managing director, Li Li, began collaborating with Hard Beat Communications, the producers of the annual investment summit last year. The 2014 Summit will mark an expansion on that collaboration that will include not only the arrival of the Chinese delegation to the New York Summit but a two-nation Caribbean trade mission to the Caribbean later this year.

Nearly every island in the Caribbean, from the smallest up, currently has a substantial investment from China.  In 2009, China pledged US$7 billion in foreign direct investment to the region. According to recent tourism statistics, approximately 55 million Chinese traveled internationally in 2010, spending an estimated amount of US$42 billion – three times the 18 million overnight visitors from around the globe that the Caribbean attracted that year. The Boston Consulting Group predicts that by 2020, outbound travel from China will be worth US$590 billion so many Caribbean nations are anxious to obtain a piece of that pie.

This year’s fourth Invest Caribbean Now summit will also feature numerous global professional investors, entrepreneurs and business leaders including from the World Bank Group, OPIC, Merrill Lynch, Aegis Capital, the International diaspora Engagement Alliance, (IdEA); InvesTT, Sandals International Resorts, Sir Richard Branson’s Carbon War Room; One Caribbean Television, China Daily, First Citizens TT; HBO Latin America, interCaribbean Airways; DHL Caribbean, Tia Properties, American CryoStem Corporation, Lugano Group, Damoola, Island Global Yachting, Blocadi Capital, Bright Capital, MPowered, Aspenall Energies, K&L Gates, Global Med Choices, American World Clinics, The Goodness Company and Paramount Communications.

Also attending will be Hollywood Actor Malik Yoba; Designer to the stars, Woody Wilson; Chairman of Sandals Resorts International, Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart and Caribbean government ministers and dignitaries from across the region including Premier of Nevis, Vance Amory; Moses Kirkconnell, Deputy Premier and Minister for Tourism for the Cayman Islands; Minister of Trade, Industry, Investment and Communications, Trinidad & Tobago, Vasant Bharath; Minister of Agriculture of Barbados, Dr.  David Estwick; Minister of Tourism & International Transport of St. Kitts, Ricky Skerritt; Jeanne Rogers-Vanderpool, Minister of Tourism, St. Martin as well as representatives from Puerto Rico, Montserrat and Martinique.

Multiple Award Emmy winning TV Anchor, Ernie Anastos, will emcee the Summit while One Caribbean Television weatherman, Joey Stevens, and his famous side-kick, Bob, will wrap up the event by hosting the ICN Awards Reception, set for 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. This year’s honorees will include DHL Caribbean, HBO Latin America, First Citizens TT, One Caribbean Television, interCaribbean Airways and Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart, the chairman and founder of Sandals Resorts International.

For more log on to ICN’s summit page at Investcaribbeannow.com. This year’s Summit will be live tweeted at twitter.com/InvestingCarib using hashtag Investingcarib. Additionally fans can follow the summit at Facebook or facebook.com/investcaribbeannow

ICN PARTNERS

Presenters for ICN 2014 include: Hard Beat Communications, The Caribbean Tourism Organization, One Caribbean Television, The Woody Wilson Collection of Beverly Hills, The PR Newswire, the Caribbean Commerce Magazine, Blinglets, The Caribbean Council for Economic Development, the World Tourism Cities Federation, China Daily, InvesTT, the Chinese Business Development Center, the Sino-American Friendship Association, Martinique Promotion Bureau- CMT USA,  CaribPR Wire, News Americas Now, the Jamaica Observer, CaribSeek, WINN-FM and GCaribbean Magazine.

SOURCE: Invest Caribbean Now

MEDIA CONTACT:

Kathy Bronson

Communications Coordinator

Invest Caribbean Now

[email protected]