A for­mer Min­is­ter of Fi­nance Wen­dell Mot­t­ley says Trinidad and Tobago can­not dis­re­gard the “Chi­na fac­tor” but he warns that Chinese loans can be­come an al­ba­tross around the neck of this country’s government.

Mr. Mot­t­ley fo­cused on grow­ing Chinese in­vest­ment in the re­gion in his con­tri­bu­tion to an AMCHAMTT sem­i­nar on growth and in­ter­na­tion­al part­ner­ships.

Not­ing that Chi­na’s ef­fort to gain in­flu­ence in the re­gion has caused the Unit­ed States to re­spond ac­cord­ing­ly, Mot­t­ley said T&T would have to be very so­phis­ti­cat­ed as it maneuvers part­ner­ships with the two coun­tries.

Mr. Mottley questioned whether as a coun­try if governments are tak­ing loans or wel­com­ing in­vest­ments?

Mr. Mot­t­ley explained that it would be bet­ter to ob­tain in­vest­ments where the Chinese took some of the com­mer­cial risks.