VICE PRESIDENT & MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS CARL GREENIDGE UPDATED BUSINESS COMMUNITY ON GOVT’S RESPONSE TO VENEZUELAN AGGRESSION
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vice President Carl B. Greenidge was the featured speaker at the GMSA’s mid-year Business Luncheon held on Monday 20th July, 2015 at the Guyana Pegasus. The Minister had recently accompanied President David Granger to the CARICOM Heads of Government Summit. There the President, in his inaugural address to this august body, strongly advocated for the region’s support against Venezuela’s aggressive moves to subsume the entire Essequibo county (5/8 of Guyana’s land mass) and all of our maritime Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
The Nicolas Maduro government had by then made a series of aggressive pronouncements against Guyana and the US-based Exxon Mobil oil exploration company which had last May announced a significant find of hydrocarbons in the Stabroek Block. He followed up by recalling his Ambassador in Guyana, Reina Margarita Arratia Diaz, while threatening to issue Venezuelan identification cards to Essequibians.
After the CARICOM conference of Heads, President Granger made a stirring appeal to the community of world leaders at the September General Assembly of the United Nations in New York. This was his maiden address to the UNGA. In addition, he has taken Guyana’s appeal to the Commonwealth of Nations and to UNASUR, some of whose members including Colombia have also engaged Venezuela about the inclusion of their EEZ’s in Maduro’s 2015 decrees.
Minister Greenidge, in a Power-Point assisted discourse, brought the local and expatriate business community and the Diplomatic Corps up to date on the measures the Government was taking to address Maduro’s threat to the nation’s progress.
PRESIDENT McLEAN’S WELCOME TO OUR BUSINESS LUNCHEON
(Extract) “Apart from a limited labour force, the high cost of doing business in Guyana keeps the investors away. We’re referring here to astronomical energy charges, high Customs fees and long, undue delays to process import and export documents. We were pleased to learn that the new government is going to confront these issues in the short term.
The Private Sector is now more committed than ever to changing the business landscape from reliance on the sale of raw products to promoting new businesses that process rice, fruits and vegetables, meat and milk, wood, bauxite by-products, and the amazing variety of medicinal plants into secondary and tertiary products. Our in-country market is small by comparison, so the emphasis has to be placed on sourcing external markets alongside improving procedures at the GRA.
We renew our pledge to the Government and the Guyanese people to unreservedly support all programmes towards national development. We look forward to playing any role that will enhance the ability of our entrepreneurs to earn more than subsistence level revenue, and to eliminate the barriers to external trade which our exporters have been dealing with for many years.”
