Port of Spain a shopping and business centre for much of the country. Most government offices are also located in the city and many important government services can only be accessed in the Ministry offices located downtown. Within recent years, local banks headquartered here have helped it become a financial centre for the Caribbean and Central America region. Two of the largest banks in the Caribbean, Republic Bank, Trinidad and Tobago Limited and Royal Bank of Trinidad and Tobago (RBTT, reacquired by the Royal Bank in 2008) are headquartered here or base their Caribbean operations in the city. Trinidad's economy is based on
Caribbean–China relations to the Caribbean position globally and has stepped up military training exercises in the Caribbean for example in direct response to several sanctions placed on governments in the Caribbean region for not following the wishes of the Bush administration. Several capital-works or infrastructural projects across the Caribbean region have also been financed by the Chinese government. Caribbean–China relations Caribbean regional relations with China, which is defined as: the People's Republic of China (PRC; "China") or the Republic of China (ROC; "Taiwan"), are mostly based on trade, credits, and investments, which have increased significantly since the 1990s. For many Caribbean nations,