PRIME Minister Moses Nagamootoo says that with China approaching the status of “a highly developed, prosperous state,” there are several opportunities for Guyana to benefit from bilateral relations shared with that country.

Just last week, Minister of Foreign Affairs Carl Greenidge and Chinese Ambassador to Guyana Cui Jianchun signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two governments for cooperation within the framework of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Initiative.

Guyana is the 74th country to sign onto the “Belt and Road Initiative,” which aims to connect countries through a network of trade routes in Central Asia, Europe and Indo-Pacific littoral countries. Under the project, some $50 billion in development grant and aid projects can be accessed by countries such as Guyana.

In his weekly Sunday column, ‘My Turn’, Mr Nagamootoo agreed with the remarks of the Chinese Ambassador at the signing ceremony who said that the new agreement marks a “historic turning point” for Guyana. With the recently instigated ‘US-China trade war’ which resulted in tense trade relations between the two countries, the prime minister said that situation now presents an opportunity for Guyana to trade with China.

In July 2018, the US had moved to impose tariffs on Beijing with a 25 per cent border tax on $34 billion worth of US imported Chinese goods, which prompted China to strike back with $34 billion worth of tariffs on US imports.

“With the unilateral declaration by the United States of a so-called “tariff war” against China, there would be more than enough room on the shelves of Chinese shops for Guyana’s rice, wood, fish, shrimp, sugar and assorted fruits and vegetables (whole or as value-added products). With some 1.4 billion people, there is no doubt that China could gobble down all of our rum and, of course, all of our gold,” he proposed.

He said further that with Guyana being on the cusp of first-oil, much of the world watches as the country’s new wealth presents “enviable prospects for exponential development.”
Nagamootoo said that even as the government works to develop a Sovereign Wealth Fund for the management of it oil revenue, future projects in collaboration with China can help to push the “green” economy agenda and other much-needed infrastructural projects.

He stated: “These would include a modern airport and multiple-lane highways on the coast (now being completed), financing support in private-public partnership arrangements for bridges across the Demerara and Essequibo Rivers, Lethem-Linden-Georgetown highway and a fast train; deep-water Demerara/Berbice harbours; housing schemes and industrial parks that are self-sufficient with clean, renewable solar energy, and high-speed ICT connectivity.”

However, although friendly relations have long existed between the two nations, the prime minister said that there were also times when innocent collaborations were made to appear sinister by the previous government.

He recalled the day when his efforts to bring Guyana and China closer were falsely distorted to claims that he was taking bribes from a particular Chinese company then involved in expansion of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport.

But Nagamootoo said in response: “I had worked mostly pro bono for those and other Chinese investors whom I had welcomed to my home as friends. I know that one day my family and I could look forward to visiting China, where we have also proverbially built, as the old saying goes, ‘a home in every town’.”

Despite these encounters, pride is what the prime minister says feels in the small role he played, even as the country looks back at the visionary leadership of past Presidents Cheddi Jagan and Forbes Burnham who ensured that Guyana maintained a “one China” policy during the hostile “cold war.”

“I am confident that this friendship would be consolidated under the coalition government of President Granger,” he said, adding: “The Chinese Association and the Guyana-China Friendship Society have also worked silently over the years to build cultural relations that not only maintain the bonds between Guyanese Chinese and their ancestral homeland, but promoted trade and business that have become a dominant feature of commerce and cuisines in Guyana.”

Through the signing of the “Belt and Road Initiative,” the agreement will foster enhanced cooperation in policy coordination, financial integration, facilities connectivity, trade and investment and people-to-people interaction. Guyana is the first South American country and the first English-speaking country in the Caribbean to sign such a treaty with China.