[www.inewsguyana.com] – European Commissioner for Development Andris Piebalgs today (Tuesday September 02), signed the Development programmes for 21 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, including Guyana.
The individual agreements, which were signed in Apia, Samoa totaled €339 million of which Guyana received €34 million.
Guyana’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett is in Samoa and signed on behalf of the Government of Guyana. Guyana’s allocation of will be focused mainly on climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction, including sea defences.
The programme, formally called the National Indicative Programmes (NIP) falls under the 11th European Development Fund for the period 2014-2020.
The list of signatory countries includes 10 Caribbean (Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago), 10 Pacific (Cook Islands, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Samoa, Timor Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu), and one African country (Cape Verde).
After the signing ceremony, Commissioner Piebalgs said: “Today’s signatures mark the official go-ahead to continue strengthening our development cooperation with the concerned countries. These documents lay down the priorities for our joint work for the next seven years and will allow us to move ahead with the preparations of the concrete projects and programmes.”
The National Indicative Programmes represent an important step in the programming of EU aid. EU Member States agreed in 2013 the overall amount for development cooperation that will be channelled to 78 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries through the 11th European Development Fund EDF during the financing period 2014-2020 (total amount €30.5 billion).
The National Indicative Programmes that have been signed today define the strategy and priorities for EU aid in each particular country. These preparations are done in close cooperation with the partner countries so as to ensure that NIPs support national priorities and reflect the local context.
It is foreseen that by early 2015, the remaining NIPs will be finalised and signed. In parallel, work on preparing concrete projects and programmes have also started in all countries.
Hope their will be someone from the EU monitoring that money, because half of it will end up in the politicians pocket. The Guyana Government is a CORRUPT ORGANIZATION OF MEN AND WOMEN WHO WILL NOT HESITATE TO USE THAT MONEY FOR THEIR OWN PURPOSE.