GUYANA will be participating in several regional and international forums, among them the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Caribbean Constituency Meeting and the 6th GEF Assembly Meeting to be hosted in Vietnam from June 20 to 30.

Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, announced recently that President David Granger has been invited to make a presentation at the event. Kemraj Parsram, Executive Director (ag), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Dianna Fernandes of the Department of Environment will attend the regular meetings. The Assembly meeting will bring together 183 member-countries to review past experiences and launch its replenishment cycle.
Guyana is also participating in the Caribbean Cyber Security and Cyber Drill Training Programme to be hosted in La Plata, Argentina from June 4 to 18.

The programme is being convened by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and will facilitate discussions and training towards regional cybersecurity perspectives and the sixth cybersecurity applied learning for emergency teams.

Ronald Duke and Justino Da Silva, assistant Information and Communication Technology (ICT) engineers from the National Data Management Authority (NDMA) will attend.
The country will be represented at the Second Iwokrama Science Committee Meeting from June 7 to 8, in New York, USA. It is being convened by the Iwokrama Rainforest International Centre. It aims to continue discussions on a five-year Science and Research Programme, with the funding from ExxonMobil. Executive Director (ag), EPA, Kemraj Parsram, will attend the meeting.

EPA’s participation will ensure that the Iwokrama Science Committee’s work will be guided by the EPA Act and meet the EPA’s Strategic Environmental Management Agenda including support to the Green State Development Strategy (GSDS).

Approval was also granted for participation at the Caribbean Export Development Agency’s Access to Finance Workshop, to be held in Barbados, May 31-June 1. The agency is responsible for WE-Xport, an initiative under the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) which supports Caribbean women in business to start exporting or to increase their exports of products and services. This workshop is planned for participants who have succeeded at the initial screening.

Global Seafood Distributors, headed by Allison Butters-Grant, was selected for the WE-Xport assistance. Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest), Natalia Seepersaud will attend. In addition, approval was granted for attendance at the UNESCO Science School International Workshop in Havana, Cuba, May 29-June 1.

The workshop seeks to strengthen the corroboration and contribution on public and decision-making policies in relation to climate change adaptation in the Caribbean.
The Civil Defence Commission’s Planning and Training Officer, Alana Walters, is attending.