By Azad Ali from Caribbean Life

Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago have agreed to pursue a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in the near future.

The two countries recently discussed five areas for development: agriculture, education, energy, infrastructure for partnership and business development.

The two leaders, Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and Guyana’s President David Granger, have agreed to establish a joint commission for cooperation and collaboration to implement them during a news conference at the San Fernando Teaching Hospital, San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago.

Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar said, “We agreed that we will pursue memoranda of understanding in these areas for signing in the near future.”

The establishment of a joint commission, she said, was necessary because in the past sporadic meetings have been held between the two countries with no follow through for implementation.

In terms of agriculture, Granger explained that Guyana, the largest of the CARICOM states, would welcome collaboration with T&T which has the technology and expertise to boost agriculture to benefit the entire CARICOM region.

Barbadian entrepreneurs, he noted, have already established mega farms in the Rupununi savannah (the size of Costa Rica) bordering Brazil and were already exporting rice to Brazil.

In terms of infrastructural development, the Guyana president said that T&T has an advantage in engineering technology from which Guyana’s underdeveloped hinterland road network could benefit.

“In order to access, minerals, timber and tourism resources in Guyana, Granger said, “we need better infrastructure and again we are looking to collaborate with T&T engineering.”

In the area of energy, he said Guyana has more than l00 areas which could generate renewable energy.

Persad-Bissessar said that Trinidad and Tobago has more than l00 years of expertise in oil and gas and she is looking towards working out agreements with Guyana in this area.

Granger said education is one of the main reasons why he was in Trinidad.

In terms of business, he said, both T&T and Guyana want to see greater linkages between the private sectors in both countries, particularly in the manufacturing sector.

IMAGE: Associated Press / Moises Castillo Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

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