EVER since Guyana and China established diplomatic relations in 1972, the two countries have enjoyed an extremely cordial and fruitful friendship. And as China developed industrially and economically, it progressively increased its assistance to Guyana with generous financial and technical support to help develop various sectors of the national economy.
China has made dramatic economic and industrial strides and its economy has emerged as one of the most powerful which is causing shivers in some parts of the developed world.
But despite its tremendous advances, China has not turned its back on its friends. In fact, it has been intensifying cooperation and assistance and Guyana, being one of its friends, has been benefitting from this policy.
For many years now, China has been providing invaluable assistance to Guyana’s health care system, dispatching regular medical brigades, comprising highly skilled specialists in various fields of medicine.
This assistance has significantly helped this country to cope with the growing demand for specialist medical services which it does not have.
China has also been providing steady help in the agriculture sector as well as for infrastructure. As regards the latter, the Guyanese people will always be grateful for the Guyana International Conference Centre at Liliendaal.
In the field of education, scores of volumes of books have been donated to the National Library, the University of Guyana and several other educational institutions.
So, almost every major sector of the economy has been benefitting from the generous assistance from China.
And on Monday last, another manifestation of this deep friendship and bilateral cooperation was demonstrated with the signing of an US$8M grant aid agreement to fund social sector projects in Guyana.
At the ceremony, Chinese Ambassador to Guyana, Mr. Yu Wenzhe, gave a strong reassurance of deepening ties and cooperation between the two countries: “Today was yet another happy occasion in the relation between China and Guyana.”
He noted that the two countries have helped support each other on many issues bilaterally, regionally and in the international arena.
Ambassador Wenzhe said that especially in the last few years, the technical and economic cooperation between Guyana and China has been expanded and deepened in many fields.
“I am very happy today to sign a new agreement of economic and technical cooperation between China and Guyana and this is another manifestation of the good relations and close cooperation between our two countries and peoples,” he said.
He added: “Personally, I am full of confidence that the friendship and the close relations will bring more and more concrete benefits and tangible results for the people of the two countries.”
According to the Ambassador, there are many cooperation projects between China and Guyana that have already been accomplished and others are in the pipeline. “This will be a new set of projects that will be defined later on,” he said.
Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh, in his remarks, recalled that after achieving independence, Guyana was the first Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country to establish diplomatic and economic relations with China.
Minister Singh also made specific reference to China’s rapid development as an example to developing countries and highlighted the recent Shangai Exposition as an event in which the region participated with President Bharrat Jagdeo heading the visiting delegation to China.
He also lauded the generosity of China to Guyana and the Caribbean region which, he said, could be substantiated by their meaningful contributions through the Caribbean Development Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank.
The cooperation between Guyana and China is also a demonstration of another example of South-South cooperation, a relatively new dimension to international relations, which was a logical outcome of the drying up of assistance by the developed countries to the developing world.
This new dimension is gaining momentum and has proved very fruitful to developing countries in their quest for socio-economic advancement.