Foreign Affairs Ministry records ‘reasonable successes’

Jan 01, 2017 News

In its efforts to connect foreign investors with Guyana, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Vice-President Carl Greenidge said that his Ministry has recorded reasonable successes during 2016.

Foreign Affairs Minister, Carl Greenidge

According to the Foreign Minister during his end of year press conference, his Ministry’s success can be measured by the number of new ambassadors who have been deployed to new locations which are approaching the government of Guyana.
He said that added to this, there has been greater cooperation between the sector Ministries and some of the foreign investors.
“We have been approaching investors and distributing information provided to us by the sector agencies and of our own volition in a number of new jurisdictions that we have not been especially active in the recent past and these would include Eastern and Central Europe.”
Greenidge said that during his official visit to Russia, one of the first in recent times, he had discussions with the Foreign Minister of Russia who he said had shown not only an extensive knowledge of Guyana but an interest here.
He said that a number of businesses in Russia apart from the ones who are already here, including Rusal, have shown interest in technological areas.
“They’re interested in providing equipment in the IT sector, in undertaking collaboration with our other mining areas as well as in areas such as mid-sized Hydro.”
Greenidge said that his Ministry’s first task is to make the outreach to the country and the second step would be to put those who are interested in touch with the sector. He said a lot of investors are at the second stage.
“We’ve had discussions with other Eastern and Central European states; also which show a capacity and an interest in technological areas and in renewable energy. These are the areas some of them have identified and we have put them in touch with the relevant agency.”
As it relates to finding markets for locally produced products, Greenidge said that his Ministry’s primary focus is to interface with bilateral and multilateral agencies to look at the framework for trade that they have.
He added that none of the government’s foreign officers are more knowledgeable or skilled than men and women in sectors such as rice; therefore it isn’t the Ministry’s place to go and sell these products on behalf of producers.
“It is our job to look at the framework; in relation to Jamaica, whether the existing regulations as applied discriminate against Guyanese getting into the market.
“It is also the case that we have an Ambassador in the region, that ambassador is aware that there is an interest in Jamaica in buying rice, he is to try to provide information to potential buyers and to alert potential sellers in Guyana.”
He said that this is on-going and similar work is going on in Cuba. Greenidge said that in the more non-traditional markets in the near and far East the government has held discussions with representatives from Finland, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
According to Greenidge, distance and transport cost have been flagged as two of the determining factors to finalising agreements.

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