THE Turkish International Co-operation Development Agency (TIKA) yesterday donated conference systems valued US$9,500 to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge noted that Guyana and Turkey established diplomatic ties in May 1973 and that country has co-operated with Guyana and the Region. “CARICOM and Guyana have benefited from TIKA’s contributions to the economic and social development, especially in the areas of health, agriculture and education.”
He said the equipment handed over will equip the ministry’s main conference facility. During 2014, the Government of Turkey under its official development aid pledged funds to support the health sector.
HEALTH PROJECTS
Minister Greenidge said Guyana has benefited to the extent of US$100,000 for health projects within the scope of Turkey’s expo 2020 candidacy campaign and the funds were disbursed to establish a presidential commission on non-communicable diseases.
He said the implementation was done jointly with PAHO and Guyana benefited by the way of procurement of basic equipment for most of the primary healthcare facilities. “This intervention enabled us to boost our capacity to deal with four categories of non-communicable diseases. In the second instance a sum of US$127,000 was provided for the purchase of two well-equipped ambulances to enhance the efficiency of the service by the public hospital system to the populace of Guyana.”
Underscoring that the Government of Guyana had previously received an official delegation from TIKA, Minister Greenidge said that delegation had the objective to promote and strengthen co-operation in education, health, agriculture and tourism. As a consequence of that visit, a number of projects were approved by the Government of Turkey.
TIKA Colombia Programme Office Co-ordinator Mehmet Ozkan is willing to assist Guyana in the aforementioned fields, especially agriculture. He said if more projects are done, TIKA will be visiting Guyana more frequently and co-operation on various projects and topics will evolve.