If, at the conclusion of the recent blitz of regional and international gatherings held recently in Guyana that embraced the Republic itself alongside CARICOM hemispheric Heads of Government, high-profile diplomats from across the world and high profile businessmen keen to secure a ‘look-in’ in Guyana’s investment prospects, one such visitor who can lay claim to having had to carry the weightiest official ‘burden’ would be the Ghanaian Foreign Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey.
With the assertive resurgence of Venezuela’s territorial claim having attracted considerable hemispheric and regional media attention in recent weeks, Guyana’s remaining immediate neighbours, Brazil and Suriname, would appear to have opted for a course of action which a recent Reuters report says seeks to “deepen discussions on cooperation in the oil and gas sector.”
In the fullness of time the significance of Thursday’s February 29 Trilateral Meeting that brought together Guyana’s President, Irfaan Ali, Brazil’s President, Luiz Inácio ‘Lula’ da Silva, and Suriname’s President, Chandrikapersad Santokhi, will become a good deal clearer in terms of its particular significance to the three countries, both collectively and in terms of their respective objectives, though its timing would appear to suggest that the three neighbouring countries may now be ready to ramp up relations among themselves in areas of common economic interests.
As the Caribbean continues to draw increasing attention to the positive transformations in its overall development profile, driven in large measure by Guyana’s exciting petro prospects and a wider unfolding regional effort to further burnish its image as one of the world’s most tourism-friendly places, the region continues to attract nods of approval from some of the world’s more high-profile development agencies.
A February 29 article published in the Forbes Daily and written by Barbadian journalist, Daphne Ewing-Chow, says that the Caribbean’s food systems are among the most vulnerable globally, attributing the condition to the ongoing hostile climate change conditions.
Readers will recall that the Stabroek Business’ sustained appeal for disclosure on Guyana’s intended participation in the 2024 Barbados Agro Fest fell on deaf ears for a protracted period and that the first official public disclosure appeared in the print media on February 22nd, the day prior to the actual start of the event.
There can now be little doubt that, insofar as the favoured regional venue for the hosting of events that have to do with the development of the Caribbean is concerned, Guyana has become the unquestioned focus of regional attention.
Further indications that the Caribbean is set to significantly strengthen its relations with Africa emerged recently with the announcement that Trinidad and Tobago had dispatched a ‘delegation’ comprising twenty-one private and public sector companies to Ghana on a trade mission.
GSE (https://guyanastockexchangeinc.com/telephone Nº 223-6175/6) reports that session 1062’s trading results showed consideration of $7,033,448 from 30,947 shares traded in 19 transactions as compared to session 1061’s trading results, which showed consideration of 16,968,634 from 82,170 shares traded in 19 transactions.
The recent resurgence of Venezuela’s territorial claim against Guyana has reawakened tensions between the two countries and stirred the interest of both member countries of the Caribbean Community and sections of the wider international community.
The fact that two gold miners, Donavan Washington and Zaheer Mohammed Sherriff had their lives violently taken on Sunday, at Arimu Backdam in Region Seven, while they were transporting gold from one location to another, provides yet another poignant example that illustrates the dimensions of cold and ruthless criminal activity that continues to target sections of the business community in Guyana.
By Mario Lubetkin, FAO Assistant
Director-General and FAO Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean for Latin America and the Caribbean
The regional commitment to fight hunger and malnutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean has made significant progress thanks to the update from the Food Security, Nutrition and Hunger Eradication Plan of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) for the period 2024-2030, known as the CELAC FNS Plan.
A Reuters report earlier this week has alluded to what it described as “insufficient inventories” and “a lack of imported diluents” at Venezuela’s main oil port, Jose, which, it says, continues to place restraints on the ability of the country’s state-run oil company, PDVSA, to further accelerate exports to fulfill spot supply deals.
Jamaica’s tradition for producing a wide range of agricultural produce to meet the needs of local consumers as well as to ‘cash in’ on opportunities on the export markets, notably in the agro-processing sector has been, reportedly, coming under critical scrutiny on account of what a report in the February 28th issue of The Observer newspaper says has been “a decline in a number of traditional crops locally,” a circumstance which the report says “have seen stakeholders across the agricultural sector calling for improved policies geared towards rebuilding.”
What we know up to this time about the troubling circumstances that now obtain at the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) is still very little, which is one of the reasons why the information which we have continues to be, unquestionably, troubling.
By Brooke Glasford
On the tale of personal branding and the incredible effect it had on my friend, James Marcus’ professional development as he prepares for a career in diplomacy, I have thought deeply and had great conversations stemming from my last article about the necessity of positioning yourself well.
Forcibly displaced people in Latin America and the Caribbean can contribute significantly to the economies where they live if they have the opportunity, according to two new studies undertaken by the World Bank (WB), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).