Fruitful talks

Prime Minister Mia Mottley is back home from a four-day working visit to Guyana with news that Barbados will benefit from a wide range of trade, investment and other initiatives, including a reduction in the cost of food as well as air travel between the two countries.

Just after touching down at the Grantley Adams International Airport (GAIA) on Thursday, Prime Minister Mottley reported that the Barbados delegation engaged in talks not only with Guyana but Suriname as well, in order to boost the economy and make life easier for citizens.

Flanked by Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Senator Dr The Most Honourable Jerome Walcott and her Special Envoy on Investment and Financial Services, Professor Avinash Persaud, she identified the potential for reduced food prices as one area in which Barbados stands to benefit.

“The question of food prices continues to be something that causes all of us angst, and, therefore, if we can reduce the price of food, particularly healthy food, then we believe we can add serious value.

“Of course, Guyana and Suriname have much more land than we do and they all have access to fresh water. So we are talking about training, expanded production – both in crop and livestock – and then using Barbados as a logistics hub in order to supply not just the Barbados market but other markets regionally and internationally,” the Prime Minister disclosed.

She reported that the Barbados team was also able to have discussions with Guyanese manufacturers.

“In fact, I am happy to report that there will be a group of Guyanese manufacturers coming here early in April and looking at a range of products, including prefab housing,” Mottley said.

“We have been discussing seriously the question of combined training. There are some areas in which Guyana’s training will be what we need in the area of welding and joinery…and there are other areas in hospitality where we can provide significant opportunities. They want 6,000 hospitality workers trained and we have already started the process of providing for that.”

She also reported that opportunities exist for Barbados and Guyana to do co-branding in tourism marketing, particularly in Europe where there is an appetite for eco-tourism and beach tourism.

“….Where people typically have longer vacations … the opportunities to twin the two destinations in a trip is not something that is out of their range,” Prime Minister Mottley told the media.

International transport was another topic of discussion, particularly logistics for the movement of cargo “that continues to bedevil this Caribbean region”, the Barbadian leader said.

Mottley said in that regard, some Surinamese have invested in air cargo and maritime assets for cargo and Barbados is examining ways to boost that.

“In addition to that, we discussed the question of how do we get the whole issue of reducing the cost of air travel between our countries, because once people start moving they are going to find the opportunities that governments haven’t even thought about. And I believe that, therefore, this is going to be one of the things you will see significant progress on over the course of the next few weeks,” she disclosed.

Touching on security, Mottley said Guyana will be joining the Barbados-headquartered Regional Security System (RSS).

“That is a significant impetus for us in the southern Caribbean. Guyana’s military is long established and is well-equipped and therefore the ability to have another anchor in the regional security system is something that will enhance the ability of the RSS, not only to respond to national security issues but in particular, as we are ready to go into the hurricane season…,” the Prime Minister added.

She also promised that in the coming weeks, the country will hear more from the Government regarding the initiatives taken by Barbados, Guyana, and Suriname.

“There are other matters of mutual benefit to us and I look forward to being able to welcome Guyanese businessmen up here. There was a significant contingent of Barbadian businessmen who went down with us and they, too, have reported that their talks and discussions went exceedingly well for them, and they anticipate that the future can be bright in terms of a renewal of this relationship, particularly in the post-COVID environment where everyone is looking for new opportunities to be able to build back up the volume of economic activity that obviously was displaced over the course of the last two years,” the Prime Minister said. emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb