Leader of Guyana’s People Partnership (GPP) Peter Ramsaroop says that the PPP/C’s lack of focus in its foreign policy has severely affected economic growth over the last five years.
According to a GPP press release, Ramsaroop chastised the PPP/C’s track record on foreign policy during talks with policy experts in the United States recently.
Ramsaroop said further that “lack of credible diplomatic leadership with countries such as Brazil and Venezuela have severely affected economic relationships with them.”
The GPP leader pointed out that “appointing inexperienced or party faithful ambassadors to these countries demonstrates the incompetence of the administration as it relates to foreign policy.”
Ramsaroop contended that “The President believes he is the Foreign Policy by travelling around the world worrying about other countries’ problems versus our own.” According to him, the GPP’s blueprint calls for a ‘Transport-led and Energy Driven Economy’ and Brazil and Venezuela are critical to Guyana’s success. The private sector must be enabled to create jobs for the nation but the government responsibilities include ensuring the infrastructure is in place such as roads, Ramsaroop said.
“The completion of the road to Brazil has been put on the back burner for too long and we are paying the price for it especially with trade halted between Brazil-Lethem and Georgetown due to the floods,” Ramsaroop is quoted as saying.
“Guyana’s foreign policy must be grounded on a sound economic platform. …At the forefront of our country’s foreign policy must be a set of goals outlining how our nation will interact with other countries economically, politically, socially and militarily. The bottom line is that Guyana has a roving and rolling foreign policy that must be refocused to contribute to the building of a sound economic platform for Guyana,” he asserted. Ramsaroop emphasised the forging of stronger ties with Brazil for technical and economic development and trade purposes.
“As one of the top ten largest economies in the world, and a neighbour, we would like to posit that we create bilateral policies and programmes instead of tapping into the usual resources of the ABC’s (America, Britain and Canada),” Ramsaroop said.
