By Aabigayle McIntosh

Information Minister Melford Nicholas commends Prime Minister Gaston Browne for spearheading a delegation’s visit to the People’s Republic of China last week.

Throughout the global sojourn, the delegation, including Health Minister Sir Molwyn Joseph, Foreign Affairs Minister EP Chet Greene, and others, diligently worked to enhance the longstanding amicable relationship between the two nations. Various cooperation agreements were inked across multiple domains such as Health, Education, Trade, the Arts, Climate Change, Visa Exemptions, and Media, among others.

Notably, the establishment of the Antigua and Barbuda Embassy in China marked a historic moment after decades.

Minister Nicholas underscored the significance of an agreement aimed at upgrading the country’s water system, emphasizing its inclusion in the Prime Minister’s New Year address and budget presentation.

“This area is of extreme priority the prime minister featured it in his New Year address and his budget presentation and certainly it sits at the core of my goal to achieve at the end of this term. There is a funding mechanism to the tune of about US$60 million that we have asked for support, we have been invited by the Chinese government to send them our wish list,” Minister Nicholas said.

“Should this fund materialize, we should be able to accelerate and advance our pipeline rehabilitation project the whole issue of the storage and the hydraulics to move water from place to place within our network,” he added.

 He admits that while it will lengthy project it will also lead to several disruptions.

Additionally, Minister Nicholas highlighted the landmark development of opening the embassy, making Antigua and Barbuda one of the last countries in the region to establish diplomatic representation in China