THE EDITOR, Sir:The China-Caribbean Eco-nomic and Trade Forum and also a trade fair, according to a large advertisement in the newspapers, has as its objective promoting cooperation for development.
China has the world's largest population, approximately 1.3 billion, 79.5 million Internet users, one major political party headed by the general secretary President Hu Jintao, a workforce of 778 million with unemployment running about at 10 per cent.
More than 50 per cent of
the economy is engaged in
agriculture, the rest is divided almost equally between industry and services.
MOST SPOKEN LANGUAGE
The available manpower fit for military service is approximately 600 million, gross domestic product of $6.4 trillion and exports of $436 billion and, very important, a 90.9 literacy rate being able to read and write Mandarin, the language used by more than one billion Chinese.
This language is, therefore, the most spoken language in the world and should, therefore, be one of the languages immediately introduced into the
curriculum and syllabuses of our schools.
This came home to me so forcefully on the weekend, as I stopped to buy oranges along the Bog Walk road and a busload of Chinese tourists arrived.
After much confusion and a befuddled vendor, I was able to break the ice with 'Ni hao', the Chinese for 'welcome', among the few words I have been learning, thanks to a Chinese haberdashery operator on Barry Street in Kingston.
There was one interpreter among them, however, who was Chinese, not Jamaican, who seemed overwhelmed. Neither the Jamaican tour guide nor the driver spoke Chinese.
MAXIMISING BENEFITS
Now that we have become one of the approved tourist and trade destinations for China, our guides, drivers, hotel personnel, brokers, bankers, customs
officers, immigration officers, vendors, formal and informal commercial importers (some of whom have graduated from Panama, Curacao, St Marten and the United States to China) should avail themselves of opportunities to learn the language and other aspects of their culture, in order for us to maximise the benefits of closer ties with this rapidly emerging world power.
I am, etc.,
MICHAEL SPENCE
Micspen2@hotmail.com
P.O Box 630, Liguanea
Kingston 6
