– arrangements underway to appoint Ambassador
A Guyana Embassy is to be established in Kuwait, the fifth richest country in the world and arrangements are underway to have an ambassador appointed.
The announcement yesterday by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett at a press conference she hosted at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, comes some five months after Kuwaiti’s Prime Minister, Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah paid a whistle-stop visit to Guyana with a high-level delegation that included members of that country’s private sector.
Guyana, she added, has already identified an individual to fill the post of ambassador and the name, which was not disclosed, has been submitted to the Kuwait administration for its approval.

Guyana will receive assistance from Kuwait in the area of accommodation for the embassy, the Guyanese Foreign Minister said.
With Minister Rodrigues-Birkett yesterday were Ms. Lorene Baird,  Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Trade and International Cooperation;  Ms. Candida Daniels, Acting Director, Director of Americas in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Ms Barbara Haley, Director, Multilateral and Global Affairs Department; and Messrs Keith George, Director, Frontiers Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Michael Brotherson, Senior Foreign Service Officer.
The Kuwait Prime Minister’s visit followed one made in January by  President Bharrat Jagdeo to Kuwait, all part of Guyana’s efforts to  develop and strengthen trade relations with countries in the Middle East and during which two agreements were signed for the encouragement and reciprocal protection of investments and for cultural and artistic cooperation.
During the Prime Minister’s visit here, the two countries signed five technical cooperation agreements which seek to encourage cooperation of the private sector through the establishment of joint ventures; avoiding tax being levied twice on the remuneration or any other money earned by a Guyanese or Kuwaiti in the respective countries; allowing the two countries to develop trade relations, expand the exchange of goods and services, encourage participation in trade fairs and international markets and also exchanges of commercial delegations; establishing a joint commission that would monitor the cooperation programmes between the two countries in the economic, commercial, investment and financial fields; and permitting the two countries to develop bilateral air services and to promote international cooperation in the air services field.

According to Minister Rodrigues-Birkett, the Guyana Government is confident that the establishment of the embassy, a first in that part of the world, will further strengthen this country’s bilateral relations not only with Kuwait but with other parts of the Middle East.
President Jagdeo’s visit to Kuwait in January saw this country receiving a US$10 million grant for infrastructure projects including developing new housing areas on the East Bank where 10,000 new house lots are to be sited.
Diplomatic relations between Guyana and Kuwait, which has an open economy with about 10 per cent of the world’s oil reserves and where petroleum accounts for nearly half of GDP, 95 per cent of export revenues, and 80 per cent of government income, began on August 17, 1995.
Guyana previously had an Embassy established in Libya.