President David Granger has announced that Guyana will soon sign a framework agreement for economic cooperation with Barbados.
This announcement comes 24 hours after a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between Guyana and the twin-island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago for energy cooperation.
The president, speaking at the opening of the inaugural, Guyana Trade and Investment Exhibition (GuyTIE) indicated that the decision was taken following attendance at the Ninth Meeting of the Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy in Barbados earlier this month.
“We see Guyana’s future in the Caribbean and we see the Caribbean’s future in Guyana,” the president was quoted as saying by the Department of Information (DPI), while highlighting the Caribbean as an important common market amidst trade wars and Brexit.
The combined land space of the countries of the Caribbean Community is almost equivalent to that of Sweden. President Granger pointed out that this has the potential for increased intra-regional trade.
Intra-regional exports, at the end of 2014, stood at a 13.1 per cent of total regional exports of US$22.3 Billion, he noted. The region’s estimated US$ 4.5B annual food import bill, the Head of State said, could be slashed.
However, he noted that there is a need for intensified collaboration between local, regional and international firms to grasp opportunities, which can provide a platform for global market penetration.
He touted the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME), as the way to build more resilient economies, not only in the Caribbean but also locally.
Reference was made to the CSME’s long-term aim of creating a single economic space with an enlarged market producing globally competitive goods and services.
The president committed that Guyana will continue to pursue regional economic cooperation in order to build greater prosperity and global competitiveness.
