–to teach budding diplomats a thing or two about globalisation, global governance

TWENTY-five foreign service officers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were on Tuesday awarded with certificates of completion of a one-week training session on globalisation and global governance, an area of focus that the fairly new officers needed to be conversant with.

The training exercise was a collaboration between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Foreign Service Institute (FSI) and the Government of Chile, through the Diplomatic Academy and the Agency of International Cooperation of Chile.

It was held at the Kings Hotel at Middle and Waterloo Streets, Georgetown. Head of the Foreign Service Institute, Ambassador Ronald Austin said most of the officers attending the course are new to the Ministry and international politics. With that in mind, he said, it was decided that it would be a good move to expose them to that area of focus.

“As young officers, they will have to look at the global situation and decide where Guyana fits in, and how they can work to have Guyana’s foreign policy fit into the global environment,” Austin told the Guyana Chronicle.

The training exercise covered a gamut of areas, including Guyana-Chile relations and global government structures. “It was a pretty thorough and comprehensive assessment of globalisation as it is today,” Ambassador Austin said.

The training was delivered by Chilean Ambassador to Guyana Claudio Rachel Rojas, along with three other Chilean officials from the embassy here.

Ambassador Rojas said the joint effort sought to raise awareness about globalisation and governance. It also sought to help the young foreign service officers along their chosen path as they begin their careers.

“So we will exchange ideas and inter-train on how the political experience of Chile can help Guyana in its own process,” he said.

“We would also like to see Guyana coming out to work together with other South American countries like Chile,” he added.

He also took the opportunity to acknowledge the performance of the young officers who participated in the training.

The Ambassador promised that as a follow up, the Chilean embassy will have an assessment or evaluation process for participants. It will also seek to team up with Guyana to have similar training in Chile.