-Ambassador Meyer

Brazilian Ambassador Arthur VC Meyer paid a courtesy call on President Bharrat Jagdeo last week as his tour of duty in Guyana has come to an end.

According to a Government Information Agency (GINA) press release Meyer and Jagdeo met at the Office of the President. GINA said Meyer has served as Brazil’s top diplomat in Guyana since October 2005 and he is set to assume a new post in West Africa some time this month.

After the meeting, Meyer noted that there are many domains of cooperation between the two countries: in trade, investments, technical cooperation, in the cultural domain in cooperation along the borderline and military cooperation. “We have in our days ahead, a very broad agenda of bilateral cooperation and activities,” he said.

The ambassador said too Jagdeo told him that he was hopeful that he could soon schedule some time to officially commission the Takutu Bridge along with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, during the second half of the year. “In the intervening time, he also told me it is quite possible that the provisional opening of the bridge may take place very shortly, in a matter of weeks perhaps,” he said.

The Takutu Bridge links Lethem in the Rupununi region with the town of Bon Fim in the northern state of Roraima in Brazil. During Meyer’s tenure, the governments of Guyana and Brazil reached an agreement on new insurance limits under the Guyana/Brazil International Road Transport Agreement. Guyana also received 10,000 doses of yellow fever vaccines from Brazil to boost its current supply and there has been enhanced collaboration between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Brazilian Cooperation Agency following the conclusion of four technical cooperation agreements in the areas of corn and rice production, aquaculture and forestry management. Also, a Protocol of Intentions was concluded between the two countries during the last quarter of 2008 which provides the framework for collaboration in the postal sectors.