VICE-PRESIDENT and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge, has made it clear that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is not an IOU – a signed document acknowledging a debt, as he allayed the fears of some over the MoU signed by the Governments Guyana and China within the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Initiative.

“An MoU is not an IOU, we have signed an MoU,” the Foreign Affairs Minister said, while fielding questions from reporters during a press conference at his ministry on Wednesday. He explained that after a MoU is signed, identifying broad areas of cooperation, the parties involved would then identify priority areas to be dealt with, emphasising that it is not an agreement that involves the issuing of loans.

Since the signing of the MoU in July to foster enhanced cooperation between the two countries in five critical areas, namely: Policy coordination; facilities connectivity; trade and investment; financial integration; and people-to-people interaction, the Guyana Government has been criticised.

The Silk Belt and Road Initiative, through which the Chinese Government has already made available over US$50B in funds for utilisation by member states within Latin America and the Caribbean, has been viewed by some as a “dark alley” or as a “debt trap” for countries. Minister Greenidge said Guyana has long been benefiting from its relations with China.
“Long before the Belt and Road even appeared anywhere on the horizon, the International Conference Centre hasn’t left us indebted to the Chinese to the point of burying us. Nobody until you all started to make an issue of it ever bothered about that; and there are many other things that the Chinese have contributed to us,” he said.

He posited that sections of the media appear to be preoccupied by the nationality of the country’s partner. “In economics, what matters in a loan or in a grant are the terms, so you can borrow from Germany, China and Poland, it is not the nationality, the place from which the loan comes,” Minister Greenidge emphasised.

He further pointed out that part of the Chinese cooperation is a grant. “Part of it is grant-funding; do let us not get carried away,” he posited. Asked when the MoU will be released, Greenidge in response, said the “MoU will be released in good time.” “We will release it when we are ready, and that would be at an appropriate time,” he said.

Guyana, Panama, Bolivia, Trinidad and Tobago and Antigua and Barbuda are countries in Latin America and the Caribbean that have signed on to the Belt and Road Initiative.
The extension of the Guyana National Broadband Project on a US$26.46M concessionary loan; and an economic and a technical cooperation agreement for US$14.58 million grant aid are two aspects of the agreement that was signed.

At that signing ceremony, Minister Greenidge maintained that Guyana has been China’s trustworthy, long-standing partner and friend.