Prime Minister David Cameron greets Chamber at Number 10

The Chamber’s International Trade Director Pauline Wade shakes hands with Prime Minister David Cameron in Number 10 Downing Street.

FOLLOWING David Cameron’s visit to Jamaica and Grenada earlier this month, Hull & Humber Chamber’s International Trade Director Pauline Wade attended a reception at 10 Downing Street, where Caribbean trade and business opportunities were included.

Mr Cameron became the first serving British Prime Minister in 14 years to make an official visit to the Caribbean during which he announced the UK Government would invest £300-million in new infrastructure in the Caribbean such as roads, bridges and ports to help drive economic growth and development across the region.

The money from the UK’s existing aid budget will be used to provide grants over the next few years for a range of projects that will help boost growth and trade across the Caribbean region, creating jobs and opening up new market opportunities for British businesses.

The Chamber’s profile in the Caribbean market is well established with offices in Port of Spain Trinidad and Castries in St Lucia and plans are currently being developed to ensure that both in the run-up to and during Hull’s year as the UK’s City of Culture 2017, both business and cultural links between the UK via Hull and the Caribbean are further strengthened.

A similar high profile programme of activities took place in 2007 when Hull commemorated William Wilberforce’s 200th Anniversary of the abolition of the Slave Trade Act. In 2007 the then Prime Minister of Barbados, Owen Arthur, led a parade of visiting Commonwealth Prime Ministers and Presidents who visited Hull to celebrate William Wilberforce and current trade links to the Caribbean.