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Sea defence boost…$9.2B in EU support over next seven years
The European Union has signed development agreements with Guyana that will see Euro (€) 34M coming to the country for climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction, including sea defences.
Guyana’s Foreign Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett and European Commissioner for Development Andris Piebalgs after the signing of the NIP.
According to the EU yesterday, European Commissioner for Development, Andris Piebalgs, and representatives from 21 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, have co-signed the National Indicative Programmes (NIP) under the 11th European Development Fund for the period 2014-2020 in Apia (Samoa), for a total amount of Euro 339 million.
Representing Guyana in Samoa was Foreign Minister, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett.
The signing ceremony took place in the margins of the UN Third International Conference on Small Islands Developing States (SIDS). The list of signatory countries includes 10 Caribbean – Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago – and 10 Pacific states along with Cape Verde, an African country.
The EU said that Commissioner Piebalgs noted that “Today (yesterday)’s signatures mark the official go-ahead to continue strengthening our development cooperation with the concerned countries. These documents lay down the priorities for our joint work for the next seven years and will allow us to move ahead with the preparations of the concrete projects and programmes.”
The official said that for the EU, it is essential that its programmes are drawn up in close cooperation with the partnering countries, based on governments’ own policies and strategies and reflecting their stated needs.
“This is how we ensure that programming documents really support areas where the EU can add value.”
The National Indicative Programmes represent an important step in the programming of EU aid. EU Member States agreed in 2013 for the overall amount for development cooperation that will be channeled to 78 ACP countries through the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) during the financing period 2014-2020 – a total amount Euro 30.5 billion.
Over the next seven years, some $9B will be coming to Guyana from the EU to help boost the country’s sea defences
EU stressed that the National Indicative Programmes define the strategy and priorities for its aid in each particular country.
“These preparations are done in close cooperation with the partner countries so as to ensure that NIPs support national priorities and reflect the local context. This is in line with the EU’s vision for future development cooperation, the “Agenda for Change”, which calls for resources to be targeted where they are most needed and can be the most effective.”
Work on preparing concrete projects and programmes have also started in all countries.
Guyana has been benefitting from EU’s assistance for several years now, with assistance also to help the sugar industry recover from the loss of its preferential market there and phased price cuts that amounted to almost 37 per cent.
In the last EDF, some Euro 55.4M had been committed to Guyana.
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