PRESIDENT Donald Ramotar has joined other CARICOM Heads of Government in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago for a meeting yesterday with Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe. This was the First Summit meeting of CARICOM Heads of State and Government and their Japanese counterpart and took place as the countries are celebrating, in 2014, CARICOM-Japan Friendship Year, to mark 20 years since their first formal engagement in 1993.

According to a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the discussions centred on the vulnerabilities faced by CARICOM members toward achieving sustainable economic growth, strengthening the relations between Japan and CARICOM at the bilateral level and enhancing cooperation at the multilateral level.
In his intervention, President Ramotar expressed his appreciation for Prime Minister Abe’s recognition of the developmental challenges of CARICOM Member States particularly the issue of graduation which has seen those Member States now qualified as middle or high income countries no longer being eligible for concessional loans and grants from international financial institutions.
He acknowledged Prime Minister Abe’s stated support to represent the position of CARICOM Member States on this issue in the forums of the developed countries.
President Ramotar highlighted financing for development as one of the eight Millennium Development Goals that was still to reach its target as very few developed countries had made good on the pledge of 0.7% of GDP towards developmental assistance to vulnerable countries. He requested Prime Minister Abe’s further support in advancing the need for this commitment to be met.
With reference to climate change, President Ramotar thanked Prime Minister Abe for his Government’s assistance to CARICOM Member States in the area of humanitarian responses to natural disasters and in the promotion of measures to address adaptation, mitigation and disaster risk reduction.
In their bilateral meeting, the leaders of Guyana and Japan took the opportunity to reiterate their desire to enhance the relations of the two countries. President Ramotar referred to renewable energy, infrastructure and science and technology as areas where Guyana could benefit from Japan’s expertise and assistance. He also encouraged investment from Japanese companies particularly in the area of extraction of minerals. It was agreed that the two sides would pursue these and other areas of cooperation in the near future.
President Ramotar was accompanied by Guyana’s Foreign Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh, and Ambassador Elisabeth Harper, who is the Director General in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.