Guyana accredits new Chinese Ambassador

President Dr Irfaan Ali today accepted the Letters of Credence from the new Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of China to Guyana, Yang Yang, at the Office of the President on Shiv Chanderpaul Drive.

Guyana formally established diplomatic relations with China on June 27, 1972, becoming the first English-speaking Caribbean nation to build ties with the East Asian country.

Ambassador Yang arrived in Guyana on April 17. She has replaced former Ambassador, Guo Haiyan, who completed her tenure here back in December.

Ambassador Guo left Guyana on December 10, 2024 after three years at the Chinese Embassy in Georgetown. She assumed office in October, 2021.

Prior to her departure, President Ali had hosted a farewell dinner during which he praised Ambassador Guo’s extraordinary contribution to promoting Guyana-China friendship and pragmatic cooperation.

The Head of State had also expressed his satisfaction with the strengthening of bilateral cooperation and said Guyana stands ready to continuously work with China in agriculture, health and other fields, and welcomes more investment from China.

Meanwhile, the former Chinese diplomat had extended appreciation to President Ali’s high attention to developing bilateral relations and his successful visit to China in 2023.

During a subsequent farewell reception held in her honour, Ambassador Guo had noted that the already-strong bilateral relations between Guyana and China continues to grow with tangible results in almost every field including trade, which saw a whopping 31 per cent increase in the first half of 2024.

“Practical cooperation between China and Guyana has made significant progress. In the first half of this year, our bilateral trade reached US$800 million, reflecting a 31 per cent year-on-year increase,” she had stated.

Currently, China is playing a major role in Guyana’s development especially in infrastructure, with the new US$260 million Demerara River Bridge that is being constructed by Chinese-based China Railway Construction (International); the signing of contractors for both the Guyana Utility-Scale Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Programme, and the new US$35 million Mackenzie-Wismar Bridge Project, and also the ongoing US$10 million construction of the China-Guyana Friendship Joe Vieira Park Project.