Bajans eye local forestry opportunities

Oct 31, 2021 News

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…as Guyana/Barbados agree to set up gold trading hub — Pres Ali

Kaieteur News – The Head of State of Guyana and Barbados have both agreed to the formulation of a gold trading hub on the Caribbean Island using gold sourced domestically, through a largely private sector driven initiative, even as the island’s investors eye opportunities in Guyana’s forestry sector.

The gold initiative was one of many announced and agreed to between the two countries Guyanese President, Dr. Irfaan Ali, on Friday briefed the local media corps on the outcome of his recent meeting with his Barbadian counterpart, Prime Minister, Mia Mottley.
Time-Bound
Dr. Ali in his update told media representatives, that during his engagement with Prime Minister Mottley, “we hammered out a concrete time-bound framework for enhanced collaboration and trade between Guyana and Barbados.”
As it relates to gold hub, the President said “both countries discussed the possibility of adding value to Guyana’s gold by creating a gold market hub concept in Barbados.”
Elucidating on the notion, President Ali told the virtual press engagement that some cruise liners would visit some of the Caribbean destinations for, among other reasons, their gold market hubs, “so that is what we are trying to create.”
He posited, “Barbados is a major cruise destination and we are working on the possibility of adding value to Guyana’s gold and creating a gold market hub concept in Barbados.”
Explaining how the proposed venture would operate, President Ali said that “government would (only) set the framework; we have to discuss the policy, we have to discuss the mechanism.”
To this end, he explained that it is the private sector that would be the key driver behind the initiative. According to President Ali, “in Barbados for example, you have some capacity in the craft of jewellery making, in Guyana we have capacity, so we have to now extend that capacity, expand that capacity.”
Win-Win
He told media operatives this obtains as, “we have to create a win-win situation”, adding that the mechanism as to how the market will be established, “the types of incentives that will have to be given, the type of tax regime that will have to be established, those are the things that have to be ironed out now that we have identified this as an area of cooperation and collaboration.”
The President was adamant however that, “the driver of this, after we would have established the vehicle, would be the private sector.”
Barbados, he said, is also committed to exploring opportunities in Guyana’s forestry sector, but he did not elaborate. Quarrying was also a topic for discussion, according to President Ali.
The President in his report outlined too that agreements were also had in the areas of food production and export.
President Ali expanded saying, “some of the areas we discussed and have agreement on to pursue, are increased production of food, removal of barriers to trade and the possibility of a Guyana, Barbados food terminal.”
He said too, agreements were also had in the areas of transport logistics and efficiency, agro-processing facilities, a Guyana/Barbados food sustainability plan, identification of sanitary gaps and the bridging of those gaps through the exchange of technical expertise and the budgeting of resources to remove those gaps.
Exchange Programme
He spoke too of an agreement where there would be an exchange of technical expertise, where an official from the Ministry of Agriculture in Guyana will be based in Barbados and vice versa.
This, the President said, would facilitate the smooth and efficient transaction flow.
“So what we have agreed on is that we would have a Guyanese in the Ministry of Agriculture in Barbados and a Bajan in the Ministry of Agriculture in Guyana so that Guyanese can deal directly with their counterparts in Barbados, and the same thing Barbados can deal directly with their counterpart thus removing the hassles, the barriers, the bureaucracy, that is what we are trying to remove here.”
As it relates to the tourism sector, the President announced that there was an agreement for Barbados to provide direct support for the booming domestic sector, especially in light of the impending demand for the provision of hospitality services locally with the coming on stream of a number of internationally branded hotels.
As such, President Ali reported that not only have the two countries agreed to promote each other’s destinations with free promotional broadcast in the respective countries, but that some 6,000 Guyanese would be receiving training from the Bajans.
According to President Ali, “knowing the need that we would have for personnel in the hospitality sector, we agreed with Barbados that they would support us in the training of 6,000 Guyanese for the hospitality sector; Barbados has an established world class hospitality programme and they are going to support us in the training of 6,000 who will function in the hospitality sector.
Marketing
It was explained that the training process would not be one-off but rather an ongoing effort.
He was adamant however, “why we have to move aggressively with the 6,000 Guyanese now, is because we have a lot of investment in the hospitality sector that is coming and we need to have the technical capacity, the human resources to manage and to work in those hotels; the need for training is immediate.”
According to Ali, the two leaders also additionally agreed on working out a mechanism for the twining of the countries’ tourism product. He explained that this would mean the joint marketing of the two countries as tourism destinations.
Additionally, the President said the two regional partners discussed the sharing of port space to facilitate trade and reduced cost for the movement of goods between the two countries.
The president elucidated saying “what we discussed is to identify specific port space for Barbados in Guyana and for Guyana in Barbados to reduce the cost of transportation, to improve the efficiency, to enhance trade and to deliver product at a far cheaper cost to the market.

 

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