PRESIDENT David Granger and Cuba’s Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, have agreed that arrangements should be made through diplomatic channels for a Cuban technical team to travel to Guyana to explore the possibility of collecting and cataloguing specimens of Guyana’s flora and fauna, with their counterparts here.
In a statement on Saturday, Guyana’s Ambassador to the Republic of Cuba, Halim Majeed, said the agreement was reached during Minister Parrilla’s fourth visit to President Granger on Thursday, April 18, since he has been undergoing medical treatment and evaluation in Cuba.

During the visit, the Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister not only congratulated the President on the state of his physical well-being and the completion of the cycles of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, but used the opportunity to review the President’s visit to key locations in Cuba.
“They reviewed President Granger’s visit to the Cuban National Zoological Park, the Botanic Garden of the University of Havana and the Escuela Taller de la Habana in Old Havana. They agreed that those first-hand engagements were extremely valuable and that they opened additional avenues of cooperation between Guyana and Cuba,” Ambassador Majeed explained.

Ambassador Majeed said it was then that they agreed that a technical team should be sent to Guyana to explore the possibility of collecting and cataloguing specimens of Guyana’s flora and fauna.
President Granger explained to Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez that he was impressed with the skills training at Escuela Taller, especially in the areas of conservation and restoration of public and national buildings.
“It was agreed that the possibility of the transfer of technology, which could be used in the restoration of Guyana’s wooden buildings, should be pursued at the diplomatic level,” Ambassador Majeed further detailed.

He said the matter of tourism, including multi-destination tourism, was also discussed and there was concurrence that this was another area for further cooperation between Guyana and Cuba which should be taken up through the usual diplomatic channels.
Earlier this month, President Granger received President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who, at that time, was on a four-day State Visit to Cuba.
During that meeting on April 6, the two Presidents discussed economic and cultural cooperation and agreed that relations between the two States should be deepened. In the context of those discussions, a Ghanaian delegation is expected to visit Guyana later this year.

President Akufo-Addo was accompanied at his meeting with President Granger by Kwaku Agyemang Manu, Minister of Health; Matthew Opoku Prempeh, Minister of Education; and Napoleon Abdulai, Ghana Ambassador to Cuba. Ambassador Majeed accompanied President Granger.