–President Ali says, reiterates Guyana’s intention to leverage India’s support to achieve this goal

PRESIDENT, Dr. Irfaan Ali has said that Guyana will continue to work on an international agenda that will propel the country to become a global leader in several areas, including agriculture, technology, education and even on the oil and gas front.

The Head of State made this announcement while delivering the feature address at India’s 73rd Republic Day Anniversary reception at the Pegasus Suites and Corporate Centre, on Thursday.

President Ali recently returned from India after leading a delegation of ministers and local private sector representatives.

There were “fruitful engagements” with the Government of India in many areas which presented numerous opportunities for Guyana, in keeping with the government’s developmental trajectory.

“In my very short visit to India, I had the distinct honour of sitting with industry leaders, the inventors of vaccines for COVID-19, discussing with them the plight in the developing world and how we can integrate what we do to make us more efficient, in handling pandemics and sharing technology.

“But importantly, [this will help us] in strategising the next decade and more of the relationship between Guyana and India, and where we position our strengths and weaknesses to have better outcomes for both countries,” Dr Ali said.

He highlighted the “outstanding contribution” of India to the development of Guyana’s education system through scholarships, training, technology transfer and the evolution of our cultural development.

“… Our leadership in Guyana today is about positioning Guyana to be a strong, responsible leader in the Caribbean, and Latin- America and be one of the top countries in the globe, presenting leadership on environment, climate, and energy, all of these areas.

“We are small in population, but we are not small in our ambition to present the project to Guyana in an environment of a scale that it can operate to make an immense global contribution. We have proven this,” the President said.

He said Guyana must continue to find strategic bilateral partners to work on a “government-to-government” basis who have a deep interest in being a part of the entire ecosystem of Guyana’s energy sector, not just buying the crude oil.

Dr. Ali related that India has mastered the art of transforming raw materials into value-added [products] along with its state-of-the-art technology sector, which Guyana can benefit from, especially in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors.

The President said that India has already committed to helping Guyana establish a Regional Agro-Tech Campus that would be supported by regional universities, governments, private sectors and international organisations such as the Food and Agriculture Organisation.

“So, over the next few months, you will see a number of measures that will be aimed at creating this new ecosystem around agriculture by focusing on high value, focusing on new areas and innovation because that is where the future would go.

“We are building a food production and agricultural system on a platform that will make it competitive and resilient to operate in an economy in 2030 and beyond,” the Head of State said.

Dr. Ali related that Guyana must position itself to support a food-production system for the region that will help to withstand economic and food crises. However, with India as a bilateral partner, Dr Ali said that Guyana is in good hands.

“We want to position Guyana to be a manufacturer to be a producer in alternative energy, including solar. That is what we’re doing. We are working hard to create a new wave of economic activities. But that requires infrastructure transformation,” he said as he explained that India will be key to achieving this.

Dr. Ali said he is confident that the partnership with India will achieve sector-wide transformation in Guyana since the country is among the fastest-growing economies in Asia.

“We want to be driven and supported by a country that has done it, tested it and is working there,” he added.

However, the President said that time is against Guyana and urged that those who do not believe the same, are dreaming.

“Because if we can’t build an economy and an ecosystem in the next seven years that is functional, resilient and sustainable to survive in a world 2030 beyond. I’m sorry, we will just be marking time. We have seven years to build this ecosystem. I’m going to do it,” President Ali said.