I WOULD like to congratulate the Guyana team for attending the UN summit in New York last month. I am encouraged by the many side meetings our President had with a number of Heads of State. I am particularly pleased with his meeting with the new Norway Prime Minister and the desire to continue the Climate Change partnership.

The current Guyana/Norway agreement, I believe, expires at the end of this year. I would, however, like to advise the President that for any new agreement or extension of the current agreement he must put his technical people at OCC, GGMC, MNRE, MOAA and GFC to be involved in the negotiations.
These are the folks that manage our natural resources and know what to agree to and what is difficult to achieve.
When we have people in negotiations who are not involved in the operation of the various sectors we put ourselves at great disadvantage. Let us look at what we have right now and what to do for Norway-compliance with a low level of deforestation rate, EItI, Eu Flegt, IFM, Moratorium on issuance of concessions for mining and forestry, a whole long list of Governance indicators – just take a look at the JCN on the LCDS website; it is just ridiculous. And that is not all; when the money is earned it goes to IDB or World Bank for another set of compliance requirements.
Is this the way we negotiate, where we earn and cannot spend? This must stop. It is time Guyana gets competent negotiators who understand the dynamics of our country for a new or extended Guyana/Norway agreement.
FABIAN CHARLES