BRITISH High Commissioner to Guyana, Greg Quinn and Russia’s Ambassador Alexander Kurmaz, on Wednesday paid courtesy calls on Georgetown Mayor Ubraj Narine.

Quinn explained that one of the main purposes of his visit was to begin discussions with Narine about the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Georgetown and Aberdeen.

The Georgetown-Aberdeen partnership is an initiative coming out of the visit by a Guyanese trade mission to Aberdeen last November. The MoU was suggested by the Lord Provost of Aberdeen, Barney Crockett, who is scheduled to visit Georgetown in March.

“I was in the Aberdeen Guyanese trade mission in November and one of the things that came from the trade mission was that the Lord Provost of Aberdeen indicated that he would [not only] like to come down and visit, but also sign an MoU between Aberdeen and Georgetown. So one of the things that we’re now doing is making arrangements for that visit, which will take place later on in March. The MoU will cover both how Aberdeen and Georgetown share experiences,” Quinn conveyed.

Aberdeen is the third largest city in Scotland with an offshore petroleum industry. It has long been touted as the ‘oil capital of Europe’ with years of experience in the oil industry, dating back to the mid-20th century.

With Guyana’s looming oil and gas industry, it is believed that the two cities will have a lot in common, and not only in the oil and gas-related sectors.

“Up until the advent of oil and gas, Aberdeen was a city that really wasn’t as developed as it could be and so the provision of oil and gas allowed Aberdeen to develop socially, economically, and culturally. So there’s an experience there; things that they did right and things that they did wrong, which I think they would like to pass on to Georgetown. But it’s not just all about the oil and gas; there’s also the development of the broader industry, it’s about what else you can do as a community, support the local industries and beyond,” Quinn emphasised.

Kurmaz, during his visit, noted that he believes that there are many mutual benefits to be derived from a partnership between Moscow and Georgetown.

“It is my [first] courtesy call and we are trying to define the areas where we could be helpful. Russia is the country of high-tech development, so we could find some really interesting spheres of cooperation,” Kurmaz related.

Narine noted that he hopes to work along with Russia to bring City Hall more up to date in utilising digital technology.

Narine expressed how grateful he was to see Georgetown develop cooperation with the two cities.

“It’s something good for Georgetown where two cities could be connected and share different views on how to get things done in terms of infrastructure and management. This moment I am grateful for. There’s a lot of things to discuss. I pray this foundation with the different cities will benefit Georgetown and the other cities,” Narine said.