Reminding of its duty to protect national sovereignty, President David Granger on Thursday said the government is vigorously pursuing diplomatic initiatives towards the Good Offices Process.
The Head of State was at the time addressing the 71st sitting of the National Assembly. According to President Granger, the government is currently engaged in a renewed Good Offices process and is confident that the common commitment of both the administration and the Opposition will see a strong national support for a juridical settlement of the controversy which, according to him, “has impaired the development of our nation.”
According to President Granger, over the past thirty months, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the strong support of the Opposition, has been seeking to reach a peaceful resolution to the territorial controversy which arose out of the contention by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela that the arbitral award of October 1899 was null.
“The controversy was placed before the Secretary General of the United Nations, (UN) in accordance with the Geneva Agreement of 1966. Mr. Ban Ki Moon demitted the UN secretary-generalship since my address to the National Assembly last year. He delegated responsibility for continuing the process to his successor, Mr. Antonio Guterres,” the President said, reminding that he also met the incumbent UN Secretary General late last month on the sidelines of the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly and his Personal Representative on 11th April in Georgetown.
Meanwhile, the Head of State reminded that Guyana’s natural resources are also part of the nation’s patrimony.
“We must protect and sustainably manage these resources. The institutional capacity and the adoption of an appropriate legislative and regulatory framework for the sustainable management of the Nation’s natural resource sector, including the emergent petroleum sector, are being strengthened through the efforts of the Ministry of Natural Resources,” he said.
According to President Granger, the Ministry of Natural Resources will deploy a Corps of Wardens to enforce laws, regulations and codes of practice in the mining and forestry sectors. However, the capacity of the Petroleum Department, which was established this year, is to be strengthened.
He said the Ministry, at the policy level, is aligning the mining sector with our national ‘green development’ agenda. It is promoting biodiversity-friendly practices, low-impact prospecting, the use efficient technologies and the phasing-out of mercury use in the gold-mining sector.
The Forestry Plan according to him has been revised in order to place greater emphasis on the management of the forests’ multiple, down-stream goods and services. The Guyana Forestry Commission, monitors deforestation and forest carbon change. It has been promoting the utilization of less-used local timber, in the construction sector. (DPI)
