Guyana signs onto China’s ‘Belt and Road initiative’

Guyana’s Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge and China’s Ambassador to Guyana, Cui Jianchun, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between both country’s on cooperation within the Framework of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Initiative.

This MOU is expected to see enhanced cooperation in 5 main areas such as policy coordination, facilities connectivity, trade and investment, financial integration and people to people interaction. Public infrastructure is also expected to be a major focus under this agreement.

During the signing ceremony , Greenidge said the MOU demonstrates both countries’ commitment to further strengthening the ties of friendship and cooperation, which have characterized the relationship between the countries since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1972.

“As both Guyana and China look forward to fulfiling their obligations of enhancing and providing greater opportunities for our people, this initiative provides us with another opportunity to look beyond our immediate vicinity and our historic relations with the traditional metropolis to the vast political and economic space that lies also in the east and elsewhere.

I am therefore confident that these areas of cooperation could be a conduit through which the Government of Guyana with the assistance of your Government could provide some impetus for the continued diversification of our economy. In this regard, we eagerly look forward to the operationalization of this MOU as the relations between our 2 countries continue on a positive trajectory,” he said.

Infrastructure

With one of the top priorities being infrastructural development for this administration, Greenidge said that the Government is looking to explore projects under the agreement that can build on this priority.

“One of the preoccupations of the Government and one of the preoccupations of the populace has to do with the area of infrastructure. The inadequate infrastructure in Guyana has served as a deficit to the attraction of investors and economic operators and it also serves as a constraint to identification and access to markets so one of our main priorities at this time is to work on the development of infrastructure. That would include a system for designs of roads and harbors and the like as well as access to funding for the construction for such facilities. Through the Belt and Road initiative, the Chinese have made available over US$50 billion in funds for the whole region to utilize in pursuit of agreement and initiatives among states of the Caribbean and Latin America, so we are looking at a range of projects,” he said. -(CMC)