PERSONS operating within the realm of foreign affairs must be equipped to effectively deal with the challenges facing Guyana, Second Vice President and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge, said as he addressed staff of Guyana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs during the opening ceremony of a Sustainable Development Workshop which opened on Friday and wrapped up today at the Palm Spring Hotel in Bartica.Held under the theme “Aiding in the Promotion of the Green Economy and the Sustainable Development Goals”, the workshop attracted representatives from the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Ministry of the Presidency, Conservation International Guyana, the Unite Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, and the United Nations Development Programme. The Executive Director of the Department of Trade, Investment and International Cooperation, Ambassador Rawle Lucas; Director of the Foreign Service Institute, Ambassador Ronald Austin; and Region Seven Chairman Gordon Bradford were among the officials present.

In delivering the feature address, Minister Greenidge said the workshop was being held in keeping with a commitment to enhance the capacity of staffers, while acquiring the tools needed to build a Foreign Affairs Ministry that is appropriately equipped to deal with the challenges that face the country.

Those challenges, he pointed out, range from protecting the country’s sovereignty to the effects of global warming and climate change; and encompass development issues and environmental and social problems.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry, he reminded, is the face of the country in the international arena, and plays a critical part in the information and decision-making processes.

“It is especially important for you to recognize your responsibility within the Ministry: to ensure that you are receptive to the information flow, and (are) capable of receiving and analyzing the process of learning, of reading, and familiarizing yourself with current issues,” Minister Greenidge explained.

Alluding to issues relating to development, Minister Greenidge said that while economic growth is important, it must not be acquired by putting the human capital and the environment at risk. Development, he emphasized, must be sustained, benefiting not only the present generation, but the future as well.

He said that man initially transformed the physical environment in order to make it livable; but as technology developed, that transformation has gone beyond merely modifying the physical environment for the purpose of safety, but for economic gains. However, he warned that this type of transformation has consequences.
The use of carbon-based products for the generation of energy, mining and other industrial activities continues to take a toll on the environment; and, as such, when policies are being made, the environment and its people must be taken into serious consideration, he said.

“(There must be) recognition that economic and industrial activities have an impact on the physical environment, and insofar as we fashion policies, we have to take that into account; otherwise the economic development that you are pursuing, and the social equity that you may be pursuing in terms of economic and social policies, may give rise to a better state, a better wellbeing at a particular time, but they can’t guarantee for your children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren even perhaps a space in which they can live acceptably, if at all,” he said.

With the environment and sustainable development in mind, the APNU+AFC Administration decided to pursue a green economy under the leadership of President David Granger. And the Government is making every effort to gradually transit from the use of fossil fuel to renewable energy. Major emphasis is now being placed on the capitalization of wind, solar and hydropower.

Additionally, emphasis is being placed on effective waste management. Bartica has been identified by President Granger to become the country’s first green town.

In offering brief remarks, Ambassador Austin said that in pursuing sustainable development, serious consideration must be given to the ongoing border controversy between Guyana and Venezuela, and even Guyana and Suriname.

Quoting Guyana’s first Executive President, the late Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham, Ambassador Austin said: “If you don’t have a country to develop, you will not have any development, sustainable or otherwise.”

He said the physical environment and sustainable development must not be delinked from the particular circumstances of the country. “If we are going to have sustainable development,” he said, “we would need to have the requisite institutions” and programmes in place.

Concepts underpinning sustainable development, strategies for achieving sustainable development, and the green economy and its link to sustainable development were among the areas covered during the two-day workshop.