GEORGETOWN, Guyana – Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley says the participation of ordinary people in regional trade and services will play a significant role in the realization of regional food security.
(File Photo)“It will be assured when ordinary people trade when ordinary people buy and sell goods and services among each other,” Mottley said as she addressed Sunday night, a reception hosted by Gaico one of the participating local companies in the 2022 International Energy Conference and Expo Guyana that gets underway here on Tuesday.
Mottley told the local private sector that trade will be occurring in an environment threatened by climate changes and that both Guyana and Barbados must find new areas of opportunities for trade, acknowledging that achieving food security is of utmost importance.
Mottley is leading a 14-member delegation here for the four-day working visit. The delegation includes the island’s Agriculture Minister and the Chief Agriculture Officer.
Mottley told the reception that achieving food security is an important part of the fight against climate change.
“As we fight the climate crisis and for those of us like Barbados that are water-scarce countries and whose capacity to be able to achieve food and nutritional security is compromised, then our ability to maximize the technologies opportunities that exist in today’s world is an absolute necessity,” Mottley said.
She said that for years Guyana and Barbados have held talks about improving connectivity with the two countries, but the visit this week can finally lay the groundwork for this becoming a reality.
Mottley urged Guyanese citizens to seek opportunities beyond oil and gas and that her delegation will be discussing projects for the continued expansion of gold and other minerals, tourism and hospitality training.
Other areas of cooperation include public sector capacity building, education, health care and importantly agriculture, food and nutritional security.
“And all of these things come together to be able to allow us to complement each other,” Mottley said, with President Dr Irfaan Ali welcoming the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country’s approach to improving cooperation with the two countries.
“I am very pleased that Prime Minister Mottley not only came here but came with the intention to do personal, intentional and direct work and her style is exactly what we like – a direct contact,” President Ali said.
“For Barbados and Guyana, we want to build a model of success for the rest of CARICOM and that model of success must be able to address important issues and challenges we are all facing, whether it is climate change whether it is environmental issues, water scarcity, food security, renewable energy and more importantly how do we ensure we support each other so that our economies can withstand global shocks,” Ali said.
Last week, Ali said that the two CARICOM countries are seeking to create a joint tourism product, linking the two countries as a common market and package.
He said while that is being finalized, the two countries are already advancing the conversation to further sell the tourism products of both countries.
“Let’s say you are coming to Barbados, and you are staying for a day, then let us see how we can get you to Kaieteur, let us see how we can get you to the Rupununi. That is the type of strategic conversation that is going on at the policy level and that all of you will be included when we get to the stage of finalizing the finer details of how this will work,” Ali said.
