PRESIDENT Donald Ramotar has expressed the firm view that, in order to sustain social and economic development, there must be political democracy in the country. “We must promote it and do what we can to promote it in other parts of the world as well,” he urged, at the opening of the Heads of Missions Conference at the Guyana International Conference Centre, Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown, on Monday.
The Head of State and Government remarked that Guyana is playing important roles in many important regional organisations, such as the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Organisation of American States (OAS).
“We, as a country that is committed to the democratic process, as a country that wants to see democracy entrenched and irreversible in our own country, must have an interest in what is taking place in other countries.
“That is very important for us at all times and democracy, for us, is very important from another point of view. It is important for social and economic development,” he pointed out.

TERRIBLE RESULTS
According to him:“You can have the best of intentions, as I think we experienced many good intentions going to the dust in our own country and, if you examine many, many other countries, many good intentions had terrible results largely because it was not underpinned by democracy within the society.
“That is why I am firmly of the view that, if we are going to have sustained social and economic development, we must have political democracy in our country in the first place and we must promote it and do what we can to promote it in other parts of the world as well,” he maintained.
Meanwhile, President Ramotar observed that Guyana’s relationship with South America is growing.
He said this means that this country has to train its diplomats and, probably, look, again, at its institute and add training for more diplomats generally.
He said the envoys also have to be trained in languages, such as Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch, which are very important.
“Also other languages that we have to have our people learning and our diplomats have to be multilingual in many cases for us to make an impact or help to increase the impact that we have to make,” the President posited.
He said he reiterated the idea, at the CARICOM Heads of Government meeting, of the need for them to share, in some ways, the cost of having diplomatic services, since he believes that, if they can pool resources, they can have broader contacts with different parts of the world.