Latest update January 18th, 2025 2:52 AM
Dominican Republic a critical partner in bridging development gaps in Guyana – President Ali
President of Guyana, Irfaan Ali, Former President of the United States, William Jefferson (Bill) Clinton and Dominican Republic Ambassador to Guyana, Ernesto Torres-Pereyra during a panel discussion.
Kaieteur News – Guyana is presently not where it should be on the development front but the country is building strategic partnerships to bridge those gaps.
The Dominican Republic (DR) for example is one of the country’s key partners in this regard according to President Irfaan Ali. The Head of State made these remarks at the United Caribbean Forum (UCF) on Tuesday, hosted at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, Liliendaal, Georgetown.
The one-day UCF was organized by the Dominican Republic Chamber of Commerce in Guyana. It was geared towards strengthening partnership and investment opportunities within the region.
President Ali during the Forum said there is an existing technological, human resource, services, bureaucracy, capability and capacity gaps in Guyana. He was participating in a panel discussion at the time, moderated by the Dominican Republic Ambassador to Guyana, Ernesto Torres-Pereyra. Also on the panel was former President of the United States, William Jefferson (Bill) Clinton.
President Ali was specifically asked to comment on the impact the relationship between DR and Guyana can have in the Caribbean.
To this end the President explained, “We must first position where Guyana is today as against where the DR is and where we would like Guyana to be in the next 10 years and the next 15 years. Definitely we will all agree that we are not where we should be when you measure us against the global scale. What do I mean? There is definitely a gap where we are and where the best in the world is today.”
The existing gaps, according to the President, are not only reflective of the government, but the private sector as well.
“It is for this reason we are adopting an approach of building tomorrow today…we have acknowledged that there are gaps but we have also acknowledged that we don’t have the time to work in a straight line manner to bridge those gaps. So we are applying world class technology, world class methods, best practices globally that exist not today, that exit for tomorrow, we are applying that today so that we will reduce the lag time through which Guyana will catch up with the rest of the world and more importantly, take a lead position on many issues and it is for this reason, we see the DR as a critical partner in bridging this gap,” he told the United Caribbean Forum.
Guyana is looking to partner with the Dominican Republic on tourism and building the capacity of the private sector and agriculture.
Meanwhile, former President Clinton in remarks at the Forum said he hopes the partnership between Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), the private sector and between Guyana and the DR is just the tip of the iceberg and would give life to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and to any other organizations in the Region.
He said, “If I or my foundation, the Clinton Global Initiative can help, we wanna help. If we can offer you a forum in New York during UN week to get the message out about who you are, what you stand for and what you are trying to do and the unity you are trying to build, we wanna do that.”
Clinton added, “I have believed for a long time that the Americas need to work more closely together and that in many ways the smallest countries by population are the most successful where economies of scale are not as important as personal contacts and personal responsibility but it’s hard to raise the capital to take all the smaller countries forward together so you have this curious dilemma where in theory the smallest countries can be the most successful at anything simply because there’s more personal contact but it’s hard to get people sometimes to invest…”
- Dominican Republic Ambassador to Guyana, Ernesto Torres Pereyra, Former President of the United States, Irfaan Ali, President of Guyana, William Jefferson (Bill) Clinton
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