Guyana- Antigua and Barbuda sign MoU to ensure economic cooperation

Guyana: The Governments of Guyana and Antigua and Barbuda signed a Memorandum of Understanding, providing for economic cooperation in eight areas, including tourism, financial services, agriculture, air transportation and energy.

The Memorandum was signed at State House in Georgetown by Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali and Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister, Gaston Browne.

The two leaders observed that the Memorandum is another step in the many collaborative efforts in which Antigua and Barbuda and Guyana have been involved since the governments of the two countries, along with Barbados, launched the Caribbean Free Trade Agreement at Dickenson Bay in Antigua in 1965.

President Irfaan Ali and several of the visiting Caribbean Heads of Government made a site visit this afternoon to the shade houses constructed at NAREI, on the East Coast of Demerara.

President Ali told the delegation that it is his hope that the programme would be replicated across the Region.

He explained that the project is spearheaded by youths from the Guyana School of Agriculture and the University of Guyana under the agriculture and Innovation Entrepreneurship Programme.

Sixty per cent of the youths are females.

Students from Barbados are also involved in the initiative.

The visiting heads all congratulated the students on the project. The Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, the Honourable Dr Keith Rowley expressed the hope that Guyana and Trinidad can collaborate on a similar programme while the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, the Honourable Gaston Browne said that the site visit was the highlight of his trip to Guyana.

High-value crops including cauliflower, broccoli and carrots are under cultivation at the shade houses.

Dr Irfaan Ali and the visiting Caribbean Heads of Government participated in several sessions of the development partners’ roundtable discussions which started on Thursday and continued today at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre.

This morning’s session centred on a country-specific investment platform and included presentations from several international and regional agriculture companies.