Guyana/Barbados economic cooperation
Guyana Chronicle
February 14, 2007
KINGSTOWN -- Initiatives are being explored for achieving a framework agreement on a comprehensive economic cooperation between Barbados and Guyana.
Informal talks toward this end have taken place on the margins of the 18th CARICOM Inter-Sessional Meeting and will be pursued shortly at ministerial level.
Guyana, which has the potential to be a major supplier of food products consumed by Barbados and other CARICOM partners, has indicated readiness to host a visit by Barbados' Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Development Mia Mottley.
At the start of the Inter-Sessional Meeting on Monday, Guyana's President Bharrat Jagdeo in conversation with Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur, told him that it was time for him to make a visit to assess developments there, and in the context also of his lead responsibility for arrangements for the CSME.
Following an invitation from the Guyana Government, Minister Mottley is expected to lead a team to pursue the widest possible forms of trade and economic cooperation that could result in a model agreement consistent with the goal of CARICOM being transformed into a single economic space.
The Guyana Chronicle was told yesterday that Barbados was keen on making use of Guyana's production mechanisms to help in reducing the cost of living for Barbadians and do so to the "mutual advantage of both economies". (R.SINGH)