CHINA has identified several areas, including the energy sector, which the Asian economic powerhouse says it can prioritise and further strengthen with Guyana.According to Yang Chenqi, Counselor and Deputy Chief of Mission of the Chinese Embassy in Georgetown, China is ready to work alone or with stakeholders to play a more “active role” in Guyana’s development, including in the areas of infrastructure, Information Communication Technology (ICT) application and capacity building.

He pointed out that China holds great value for its economic ties with Guyana, ”not necessarily because of its rich natural resources, even including the lately discovered oil”. He said that this country has an advantage regarding its location for trade and investment.

“So geographically and culturally Guyana plays a strategic role in bridging South America with (the) Caribbean and further north “, he explained as he stated this country’s neighbours at its borders. Chenqi noted that the location advantage, which he said is becoming more valuable with rising trade protectionism, would be beneficial to this country’s economic development goal.

In back-grounding the history between the two countries, Chenqi said that Guyana’s development potential is boasted frequently, however its economic ties with the Chinese is widely ignored. He said that China’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) stock to Guyana at the end of 2014 totaled US$0.24B, less than 0.03% of that country’s global amount that year. He said that in the area of bilateral trade, the statistics of the Guyana National Bureau of Statistics (GNBS) illustrates that China is not on the list of top ten destinations of imports from these shores, the value of which is tallied among other nations.

“Ironically, some local media still complains that Guyana had sold much volume of commodities to China “, reference made to views in the recent past that various resources, including timber which was shipped to China at reduced rates.

He said that the two countries enjoy deep political trust; they share the same or similar views and share/support each other on key international issues such as climate change, sustainable development, United Nations reform and regional integration.

Looking ahead , Chenqi said that once infrastructure is improved in the form of land and sea transport here, including the Guyana-Brazil highway and deep water project , the two countries can share a vision of large volumes of goods, people and service. He posited that the communications and energy sector needs to be expanded to compliment connectivity here, noting that economic diversification efforts can be catapulted while control of economic growth can rest in the hands of the country. According to Chenqi, the scenario is a “now or never “opportunity which each country should grasp.