Latest update January 6th, 2025 4:00 AM
Jul 29, 2023 News
Kaieteur News – Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday said that Guyana and China should be good friends who trust and count on each other. The Chinese leader was at the time meeting with President Irfaan Ali who is on a one-week visit to China.
Chinese media entity, Xinhua reported that President Xi said both countries should share opportunities, meet challenges, seek cooperation and promote development together.
Xi urged the building of a more close-knit China-Guyana community with a shared future.
Guyana was the earliest country in the Caribbean to recognize the one-China principle and establish diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China. Last year, the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Guyana was celebrated.
President Xi said China and Guyana, both developing countries, should strengthen communication and cooperation, firmly support each other, and advance bilateral relations steadily for the fundamental and long-term interests of the two peoples.
China is willing to deepen the alignment between the Belt and Road Initiative and Guyana’s Low-carbon Development Strategy 2030, and elevate the level of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation between the two countries, Xi said.
Xi said China welcomes Guyana’s participation in the China International Import Expo to introduce more of Guyana’s distinctive and high-quality products into the Chinese market.
China encourages its companies to invest in Guyana, expand mutually beneficial cooperation in areas such as energy, mining, finance, agriculture, fisheries and infrastructure construction, and foster new sources of growth, he said.
Xi called on both countries to strengthen people-to-people exchanges, facilitate mutual travel and visits, and consolidate the foundation of public support for friendship between the two countries.
China and Guyana have broad common interests and similar positions in international and regional affairs, President Xi said who congratulated Guyana on being elected as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for the 2024-2025 term.
President Xi said China supports Guyana in playing a greater role in international and regional affairs, and is willing to work with Guyana to practice true multilateralism, safeguard the common interests of developing countries, and jointly address global challenges such as climate change, food security and energy security.
He said China is willing to work with Caribbean countries to build a closer community with a shared future. Xi expressed the hope that Guyana will continue to play an active role in promoting relations between China and the Caribbean countries.
Noting that Guyana and China have enjoyed sound relations and solid political mutual trust, Ali said the past 50 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations have been years of friendship, cooperation, and mutual support.
Additionally, President Xi said that China is ready to deepen the Belt and Road initiative (BRI) alignment with Guyana.
The Belt and Road initiative is a massive China-led infrastructure project. Notably, over 140 countries are part of China’s BRI including Guyana.
President Ali is currently leading a Guyanese delegation in China for one-week.
Chinese media entity, Xinhua reported that President Ali said that Guyana firmly adheres to the ‘one-China principle’ and highly admires President Xi’s outstanding leadership, and highly values China’s international influence.
President Ali said too that China has played an important role in the economic and social development of Guyana and the Caribbean region, not only by sharing its experience but also providing valuable assistance in developing infrastructure, connectivity, healthcare and other areas.
The Guyanese leader said Guyana regards China as a highly reliable cooperative partner and welcomes Chinese companies to invest and do business in Guyana while noting that Guyana supports a series of major initiatives put forward by President Xi and actively participates in the Belt and Road cooperation.
The President said too that Guyana is ready to closely communicate and collaborate with China to promote the building of a community with a shared future for humanity and establish a fairer and more equitable international order.
Moreover, Guyana has often been warned by the experiences of other countries when it comes to borrowing loans from China and the foreign country funding local projects through procurement models that allow for transfer to government at some point.
President Ali, however, is not threatened by those warnings and instead believes that China has an integral role to play in the development of Guyana. He made his position clear during a virtual interview with a Chinese Journalist, Wang Guan on the China Global Television Network (CGTN), released in January 2023.
Guyana has been borrowing majority of its bilateral loans from the People’s Republic of China. In fact, China is one of Guyana’s largest lenders.
On December 30, 2022, the Government of Guyana entered into a new contract with the China Export Import (EXIM) Bank for the US$172 million loan to help build the new Demerara River crossing.
Last year, it was reported that the bulk of the country’s loans were owed to the China EXIM Bank.
The Governor of the Bank of Guyana (BoG), Dr. Gobind Ganga in an interview with this publication had said the China Exim Bank accounts for 39.5 percent of the country’s total external debt. Additionally, debt repayment to the China Exim Bank had accounted for 82 percent of debt repayments to bilateral creditors. In the first three months of the year, US$10.6M alone was paid to the Chinese lending institution, up by 1.4 percent. The increase, according to the Central Bank, was as a result of higher principal repayments during the review period.
At that time, Guyana’s total stock of public debt, which comprises both external and domestic debt stood at US$3.248 billion.
China Exim Bank was a major contributor to a loan Guyana had taken to modernise the Skeldon Sugar Factory. This plant was to boost the sugar production figures of the industry; to essentially rescue the sugar sector from its ailing state. Instead, it turned out to be a contributing factor to the poor health of the industry.
In 2017, this newspaper reported that the Ministry of Finance contracted two loans for the Skeldon project. These were from the Export Import Bank of China, the repayment period for which ends in 2025 and the Caribbean Development Bank, the repayment period for which ends in 2033.
On the two loans, the total amount that the Government is paying (principal and interest) is US$3.8M per year.
Another project that was completed and funded by loans from China is the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri.
The airport expansion contract was signed in 2011 under then President, Bharrat Jagdeo, and was passed through the truncated presidency of Donald Ramotar. However, when the David Granger administration took over in 2015, it said that the very defective plan needed adjustments and changes were made. The decade-old project was awarded to China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) for the sum of US$150M – $138M from the China Exim Bank and $12M from the consolidated fund – taxpayers’ money.
Even though the modernisation project has been completed, according to the subject Minister, Juan Edghill, works will continue at the airport.
Jan 06, 2025
Kaieteur Sports- Guyanese Mixed Martial Arts international star fighter, Carlston Harris is set for a return to the Octagon this coming Saturday against Argentina’s Santiago Ponzinibbio. Having...Peeping Tom… Kaieteur News- Bharrat Jagdeo has long represented an unsettling paradox in Guyana’s politics. He... more
By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News- It has long been evident that the world’s richest nations, especially those responsible... more
Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.
Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]