Mapp Says ‘A Lot Of Very Good News,’ ‘A Lot More Jobs’ Coming To Virgin Islands Following China Trip

ST. CROIX — At the St. Patrick Catholic School’s 150th Anniversary celebration held at Fort Frederik Saturday night, Governor Kenneth Mapp — fresh from his trade mission to China — said that he would host a press conference at Government House in St. Thomas on Tuesday, where he would give a report on the outcome of the visit.

Speaking last night, the territory’s leader said the outcome would see “lots of jobs” coming to the territory.

“I have a press conference on Tuesday in which we will be advising the community of our trip to China. It was extremely successful,” Mr. Mapp said. “There’s going to be a lot of very good news that we’ll announce on Tuesday. A lot more jobs to the people of the territory; and a lot more is going to be happening in the Virgin Islands, and particularly the very good island of St. Croix.”

The governor came back to the islands on Saturday from his quest, described as a trade mission that would see a “series of meetings to explore and develop economic opportunities for the territory.”

Mr. Mapp met with a host of Chinese leaders in multiple industries, including commodities and tourism, during his trip. The delegation of 16 met with China International Travel Service (C.I.T.S.), where talks centered around travel. C.I.T.S. was founded in 1954 and is the first and largest comprehensive travel agency in China.

The delegation also met with World Tourism Cities Federatoin (W.T.C.F.) officials to discuss additional travel and tourism niches available in the Chinese market. W.T.C.F. is a nonprofit, non-governmental international mass organization organized voluntarily by tourist cities of all countries and regions, non-governmental organizations, associations and enterprises related with tourism.

And, among other meetings, the governor sat with Sinopec officials, the company whose executives invited Mr. Mapp to China. The delegation traveled south to the city of Ningbo – a major port and industrial hub in east China’s Zhejiang province. While there, the delegation toured one of Sinopec’s oil refineries and storage terminal facilities.

During the announcement of the trip, Mr. Mapp said the goal was to bring jobs and development to the territory.

“This mission is to work along with Sinopec who has very serious interest in making additional significant investments on the island of St. Croix. The plan here is to visit a number of their additional storage terminals and refining facilities, to discuss additional and limited refining at the St. Croix site; to discuss areas where we plan to breakdown the current refinery and begin in that area to stage the transshipment of goods coming from China to the West and goods from the West to China,” Mr. Mapp said.

He continued: “That trade mission will include meetings with Air China to discuss weekly or by-weekly flights to the island of St. Croix, to bring Chinese tourists similar to what we’re doing with the Danish tourists on the Norwegian Airlines. The plan is also to discuss — and hopefully to save the Virgin Islands Government some money — the possibility of a hotel project on the big island as well.”