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Transcript of Special briefing by Secretary (East) on the Official visit of Prime Minister of Jamaica to India (October 01, 2024)

India - Ministry of External Affairs

October 01, 2024

Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: Good evening Ladies and gentlemen, I warmly welcome you to this special briefing on the ongoing official visit of the Prime Minister of Jamaica, His Excellency Dr. The Most Honorable Andrew Holness to India from 30th September to October the 3rd.

We have with us Shri Jaideep Mazumdar, Secretary East to conduct this Special briefing. We also join on the dais by Additional Secretary, Shri G. V. Srinivas who looks after Latin America and Caribbean countries and our High Commissioner in Jamaica, Shri Mayank Joshi.

With that, I invite Secretary Sir to give his opening remarks. So over to you.

Shri Jaideep Mazumdar, Secretary (East): Thank you, Randhir. As you all know, the Prime Minister of Jamaica, The Most Honorable Andrew Holness is paying an official visit to India at the invitation of Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi.

I would like to share with you some highlights of the visit and then if you have any questions I will take them. Prime Minister Dr. Andrew Holness arrived yesterday. This is his first visit to India and also the first ever visit by a Prime Minister of Jamaica to India. The two Prime Ministers had a delegation level meeting today and they had wide ranging discussions on each issues of bilateral interest and regional and international issues. They identified Digitalization, Health and Medicine, Sports Cooperation, Defense, Education, Trade, Agriculture, Infrastructure, Culture, Skill Development and Capacity Building as pillars of strengthening bilateral relations. Prime Minister hosted a banquet lunch for the visiting Prime Minister.

Both Prime Ministers witnessed exchange of MOUs in different fields. These include cooperation in digital public infrastructure, in digital public in UPI and in culture and in sports. Prime Minister Holness has also called on Honorable President of India and Honorable Vice President of India during the day and has a number of other Ministerial meetings also scheduled.

As a special gesture befitting our very close relations, a street in front of the Jamaican High Commission was named as Jamaica Marg yesterday. As you know India and Jamaica share a very strong historical, cultural relations reflected in our shared past, our values of democracy and freedom and passion for cricket.

This visit is expected to bolster our bilateral relations and enhance our economic cooperation, solidifying these longstanding bonds. There will also be a business interaction between the Prime Minister and his delegation and this is being organized by CII.

The four MOUs that were signed today, the one on the MOU on cooperation in the field of sharing successful digital public infrastructure is aimed at promoting financial inclusion and social and economic transformation. As you know India has demonstrative leadership in this area and has successfully provided public services even during COVID-19. Many countries have expressed their interest in learning and entering into MOUs with India in this field. These solutions are already successfully implemented on population scale in India and by collaborating with India, Jamaica can leverage the development partnership on digital transformation.

The another MOU was between NPCI International Payments Limited and E-gov Jamaica Limited. This MOU lays the foundation for both countries to assess collaboration in digital payments. Jamaica should be able to not only enhance digital payment capabilities for personal and merchant payments in an interoperable way, but also pave the way for digital inclusion.

An MOU on cultural exchange programme was signed, which extends the cultural exchange program from 2024 to 2029. This will strengthen our bilateral cooperation activities between cultural institutions of both sides.

An MOU on sports between the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sports of Jamaica will establish a framework for developing and implementing detailed proposals for cooperative programs in this area.

You would have seen the Press Statements made by both the Prime Ministers. Our Prime Minister highlighted that our relationship is defined by four Cs, Culture, Cricket, Commonwealth and the Caribbean. The Jamaican Prime Minister acknowledged the contribution made by Indians in the development of Jamaica. As you know, there are about 70,000 diaspora of Indian origin who have been in Jamaica for more than 150 years and their contribution to Jamaica was acknowledged. Prime Minister proposed that since next year, 2025, is the 180th year of the arrival of Indians in Jamaica. It should be suitably commemorated by both countries and this was warmly accepted by Prime Minister Holness.

In fact, Prime Minister Holness also gifted to Prime Minister a photograph of his own visit to Jamaica in 1999, where he interacted with the diaspora there and this was even before he had become Chief Minister of Gujarat State. That was a touching gesture from the Prime Minister of Jamaica.

The Jamaican Prime Minister also expressed his gratitude to the Government of India for the assistance that was received during the COVID-19 pandemic including 50,000 vaccines that were provided by India. He appreciated India's global advocacy and leadership in matters affecting developing countries such as climate change and also for providing a voice for the Global South. In fact, Jamaica has participated in all three iterations of the Voice of Global South Summit. The Prime Minister of Jamaica also announced Jamaica's intention to join the Global Biofuels Alliance, which is spearheaded by India. They are already a member of the Solar Alliance and also the CDRI.

He shared views on the reform of the United Nations, in particular the Security Council, and said that it is necessary to ensure that its composition is reflected of the current balance of power and the emergence of new leaders like India. He confirmed that Jamaica will support India's candidature for UN Security Council non-permanent member for the term 2028-2029. He also expressed his deep appreciation at the revolution brought about by digital public infrastructure in India in respect to the direct benefit transfers, and said that Jamaica wanted to benefit from flagship products like Aadhaar and UPI.

On education, both sides agreed to cooperate. Jamaica was interested in sharing curriculum, technology in education and the recruitment of teachers, especially in STEM areas. Prime Minister Holness also expressed his deep appreciation for India's contribution to the scoreboards on Sabina Park and also the flood lighting that is being done there.

The Jamaican Prime Minister also appreciated capacity-building programs that India has contributed to, especially in the field of defense, where three officer cadets are currently undergoing training in India. Coast Guard capacity-building was also identified as an area of cooperation.

From Delhi, the Prime Minister will travel to Sarnath and also to Varanasi where he will witness the Ganga Aarti tomorrow. He will also subsequently the next day visit the Parliament complex.

So this is all I have for you for now. If you have any questions, I'd be very happy to try and respond to them.

Huma Siddiqui: Sir, I am Huma Siddiqui from the Financial Express. You mentioned that the two sides also discussed defense and security. What exactly are they looking for from India in defense and security and there was also some talk a while ago about getting some kind of a software to deal with the narcotics movement on the border of Jamaica, if that was also part of the discussion.

Sahil: Sir I am Sahil from ANI. You talked about the UPI and any road map ahead, when can that be functional in Jamaica?

Sidhant Sibal: Sidhant from WION. So the first question, the Prime Minister mentioned about capacity-building when it comes to defense. So if you can elaborate on that aspect and secondly, on a lighter note, how much cricket was discussed between the two leaders? We saw the Prime Minister mentioning it several times.

Ayanangsha Maitra: Sir, this is Ayanangsha Maitra. Sir, what's the discussion about Global Biofuel Alliance and on Global South?

Shri Jaideep Mazumdar, Secretary (East): I think the question on defense and security I will take together. As I said, Prime Minister Holness deeply appreciated the capacity-building that we provide. We have five defense ITEC slots for Jamaicans every year. This year there were three officer cadets who were undergoing officer training here. He especially appreciated the fact that technology is such a strong component of our training in defense and he said that his officers really benefited from that, and that he would like to integrate technology into their defense systems and he was looking to India to help with that. We also discussed how Coast Guard cooperation could develop. In the area of defense and security, Jamaica is particularly concerned about transnational organized crime including drug trafficking and cybercrime.

So these were issues that were discussed and it was agreed that we would carry forward our cooperation in these respects.

About UPI, no timeline has been fixed. Both sides have just signed an MOU and they will explore. As you know, Jamaica has their own payment system called JAM-DEX and so they will see how to integrate the two and the fact is that the Jamaican side is very keen to learn from our experience with UPI and how to replicate it in Jamaica.

A lot was discussed regarding cricket. In fact, Chris Gayle was there at Prime Minister's lunch as well and so there was plenty of discussion about cricket and the contributions of Jamaica to the world of cricket and how such icons of cricket as Courtney Walsh and Chris Gayle are so popular in India. So yes, I would say in all the meetings, cricket did come up as a natural subject for discussion.

Global Biofuels Alliance, since Jamaica is also a sugarcane growing country, so the Prime Minister encouraged the Jamaican Prime Minister to join the Biofuels Alliance and he in fact announced by himself that they were considering joining it in the very near future.

Regarding the Voice of the Global South, as I have already said, the Prime Minister appreciated India's leadership role and the fact that India both in the G20 and also through the Voice of the Global South Summit, is able to harness the voices of smaller developing countries and to express it in the global platform, so that their interests are taken care of. I hope I have covered all the ones up till now.

Preeti: I am Preeti. Regarding trade and investment, what kind of investments are we looking from both the sides?

Huma Siddiqui: Sir, there was a talk of getting the Jamaican rum and I think cigar as part of the trade, there were having some issues related to the tariffs.

Shri Jaideep Mazumdar, Secretary (East): As far as investment is concerned, the Prime Minister did make the point that Jamaica is really located in a very convenient position within the Caribbean and that is why so many of our BPOs have invested there. He invited further investment by our IT and BPO companies in Jamaica, and also he is going to have an interaction with CII tonight in which they will identify what are the areas that Jamaica is looking for inward investment and what opportunities can be offered to our industry.

As far as rum is concerned, no, this was not discussed. Tariffs on rum were not discussed.

Do we have more questions?

Siddhant Mishra: Hi sir I am Siddhant from CNN News18. Sir, if you could elaborate a little bit about on his visit to Varanasi, sir, his engagements in Varanasi. Will he be visiting the temple, the corridor and other places? Thank you.

Shri Jaideep Mazumdar, Secretary (East): In Varanasi, the Prime Minister will be visiting the crafts workshops and then he will be taking a boat ride on the Ganga to witness the Ganga Aarti, but he will before that visit Saranath as well.

Yeshi Seli: Yeshi Seli from the New Indian Express, Sir what is the trade value with the Jamaica and is it the highest in the Caribbean.

Shri Jaideep Mazumdar, Secretary (East): It is about $120 million or so. Almost overwhelmingly, India's exports to Jamaica, which includes things like pharmaceuticals, vehicles and other products. In terms of the Caribbean, it is, I think, our fourth in the Caribbean, fourth largest somewhere like that, around the fourth or fifth largest in the Caribbean.

Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: Any more questions? If we don't have one, then thank you very much. Please keep following the visit. He is here for a few, several days now, so we look forward to being in touch. Thank you very much.