Dear Editor,
I read with considerable dismay, a letter from my professional colleague, Mr. Ajay Baksh, published in the Sunday Stabroek May 26, 2024, under the caption “A premier tourism event now looks more Trinidadian than Guyanese”.

Mr. Baksh who signs himself proud Guyanese and whom I know to be a genuine patriot, asks that someone explain why the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana and the Ministry of Tourism, Industry & Commerce have approached a Trinidad & Tobago owned company to sponsor the Guyana Restaurant Week, arguing that this is purely a Guyanese promotional event and that it should not be what Baksh describes as “sold off to the Trinidadians”.

Well, why on earth not. This is arrogant nonsense. Trinidad & Tobago owned companies such as ANSA Mc AL, MASSY and Republic Bank, have long been major investors and active and productive members of our private sector who all contribute to the growth and development of Guyana, who all employ Guyanese from management down and are very much part of the day-to-day life of our country.

The very fact that these companies are ready and willing to invest in sponsorship of the development of tourism, as well, I might add, sponsorship support in sports, culture and other similar events are much to be admired and accepted and, speaking for the sporting community, I can say, very much appreciated.

Mr. Baksh irrationally and wrongfully comes to his conclusions because of a recent rejection of Guyanese milk products from a Guyanese company marketed in Trinidad & Tobago.

Investigations, however, revealed that this occurred because both the Guyanese company and the company engaged by them for the promotion and sale of the product in Trinidad & Tobago were at error in interpreting and applying extant regulations and was readily addressed, and put to rest at the intervention of our government and that of Trinidad & Tobago.

In any event, the application, wrong or right, of regulations governing trade between Guyana and Trinidad & Tobago has nothing whatsoever to do with the conduct of business by either Guyanese or T&T companies that established or do business in our respective countries.

It is time that all the population of all the CARICOM countries, including politicians, abandon narrow minded and insular thinking and see themselves as West Indians, as, indeed we do when we play cricket and, once, when we played tennis and rugby.
Yours sincerely,
Kit Nascimento