PRESIDENT Donald Ramotar, Monday, swore in his 20-member Cabinet with a few new faces, some re-assigned to their positions, and one new ministry named to handle natural resources. The Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment is headed by Minister Robert Persaud, who formerly served as Agriculture Minister.
Following the swearing in ceremony, Minister Persaud said that the president decided to establish a new ministry that will synchronize activities within the natural resources sector, whether they are in forestry, mining, environment or climate change.
“Given the global trend, this is much needed; and under the president’s objective, I will give my dedication in getting the job done. We needed this type of emphasis because within our thrust, the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) and the increase in interest for our natural resources, we needed to have coordination and organisation so that the policies we have would not in any way create friction with each other, hindering development within the natural resources sector,” he told the Government Information Agency.
“For me, it is a new challenge, although I had some affiliation with the sector through forestry and climate change; but certainly I look forward to this new challenge; and at the end of the day, once we are all able to get the work done, we can all be proud of the way our natural resources sector will be managed,” Persaud noted.
Guyana, under the stewardship of former President Bharrat Jagdeo, placed much emphasis on climate change, and his lobby for compensation for the country’s forest services eventually paid off with Norway signing an MOU with Guyana. The latter could receive as much as US$250M by 2015 to support the implementation of the LCDS.