–working groups established to push bilateral collaboration in multiple areas

FRESH off the heels of a seven-day official visit to India, President, Dr. Irfaan Ali, has said that working groups have been established and will begin work immediately to push the collaborative agenda in several areas discussed during the trip.

The Head of State made this announcement during a press conference he hosted at State House, on Tuesday, to provide an update on the outcomes of his visit to India.

“We have already written to the Government of India outlining the working group, the names that we are proposing to be part of that working group following the OAS model with the US and CARICOM,” he said.

To this end, he said the only difference is that this group will include the private sector from both India and Guyana, as there are lots of follow-up and collaborations required from both private sectors.

President Ali said: “So, the working group will commence work almost instantaneously to push this agenda in Guyana.”

According to the President, India has shown a keen interest in investing and working along with Guyana in several areas, namely agriculture, technology, security and even on the oil and gas front.

During the seven days, he said that he met with Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, and they discussed co-operation in several areas.

Dr. Ali related that the Prime Minister has shown an interest in visiting Guyana this year to be able to fast-track a lot of the planning in areas that they have identified for collaboration.

Outside of engagements with Prime Minister Modi, Dr. Ali said there were also discussions with the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Puri on Guyana’s current auction process and the availability of 14 blocks.

As such, he mentioned that he encouraged the Indian Private sector to participate in this process.

He said: “But also we have made it clear that we’re examining government-to-government relationship also, and government-to-government opportunities for exploration and production.”
To this end, he said that there are blocks that are not auctioned and this remains something that India has a keen interest in and will be coming back to engage local authorities on.

Against this backdrop, he mentioned that there were specifically targeted discussions in the field of oil and gas, and the visit served as a great platform and opportunity to promote the said auctions of the oil blocks.

In addition to this, President Ali said that in a meeting with Prime Minister Modi, they discussed the shared vision and commitment to various global topics which include climate change, food security, energy security, human resource development and building out a platform through which they can create a better global environment that supports peace and development.

He went on to add that in relation to agriculture and food production, that stood as a strong pillar that underpinned discussions, as this is a key element of Guyana’s development aspiration and a key element of the leadership that the country is providing in the region.

“There was tremendous interest in having close collaboration between the two governments on research and development, technology transfer, building out of our agri-food system, the ecosystem surrounding our food production and agriculture, and enhancing the productivity of our agricultural sector,” President Ali said.

Further, the transformation of Guyana’s healthcare system that is currently ongoing was also discussed as ways in which India can collaborate with local authorities here, especially as the government intends to push the use of telemedicine here.

Those collaborations would also see training and advancement of the human-resource pool such as the nurses and laboratory technicians, among others.

Meanwhile, he mentioned that discussions were also held in relation to the security and defence sector.

India, Dr. Ali related, has a very strong investment in defence technology and as such, discussions surrounded this along with the training of Guyanese in this field.

He said that the two countries can collaborate in this regard to further the modernisation of the Guyana Defence Force and the Guyana Police Force in terms of equipment transformation so as to have a defence capability that functions on an improved technological platform.