— Foreign Secretary urges Guyanese in Canada to support Guyana now

FOREIGN Secretary, Robert Persaud, urged members of the diapora in Canada to support Guyana’s development now as the government strives towards heralding in a new era of development.

Persaud, while speaking at a diaspora engagement with the newly appointed High Commissioner to Canada, Keith George, noted that Canada contains the second largest group of Guyanese after the United States of America (USA). As such, significant skills, knowledge and capital can be found among that grouping.

As such, he expressed the hope that the diaspora could play a meaningful role in Guyana’s development, especially in the wake of the country’s largest national budget of $789.1 billion which was presented in the National Assembly recently.

“In terms of the transformation taking place in our country, we see the diaspora playing a role in terms of moving that forward because if we are looking in terms of a budget of this capacity, you have to look at issues of implementation,” the Foreign Secretary was quoted as saying by the Department of Public Information (DPI).

He added, “We are the fastest growing economy in the world and, with that, we would require capacity, for us to put all hands on deck. Now is not a time for us to be squabbling among each other, now is not the time for us to be seeking to have division, now is not the time for us to be pointing fingers, but rather how it is that we can hold each other’s hand and support what it is our country is doing because the world is looking at Guyana.”

Meanwhile, High Commissioner George outlined several sectors that the Canadian diaspora could help develop in Guyana, including the use of technology to expand agricultural production.
He said Guyana’s economy remains resilient not only in the oil and gas sector but in other traditional sectors as well.

“We hope that a larger number of Guyanese will travel back to Guyana, if not to remigrate or invest, but to reconnect with the country of their birth. I assure you that Guyana is not the place it used to be a year ago, five years ago or ten years ago,” he pointed out.

The new High Commissioner also noted that the prospects are bright and members of the diaspora could be agents of change.

“Those of you in the diaspora, I ask you to consider making some of the beneficiaries of your assistance change agents, rather than simply recipients of your help, especially in the area of agriculture,” he added.