President Donald Ramotar in a meeting with Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe in Trinidad & Tobago yesterday encouraged Jap-anese companies to invest in mining in Guyana.
In their bilateral meeting, Ramotar and Abe took the opportunity to reiterate their desire to enhance the relations of the two countries. Ramotar referred to renewable energy, infrastructure and science and technology as areas where Guyana could benefit from Japan’s expertise and assistance, a press statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
“He also encouraged investment from Japanese companies particularly in the area of extraction of minerals.
It was agreed that the two sides would pursue these and other areas of cooperation in the near future,” the statement added.
Ramotar also joined Caricom Heads of Govern-ment in Port of Spain, Trinidad for a meeting with Abe. This was the First Summit meeting
of Caricom Heads of State and Government and their Japanese counterpart and took place as the countries are celebrating in 2014, Caricom-Japan Friendship Year, to mark 20 years since their first formal engagement in 1993, the statement said.
According to the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the discussions centred on the vulnerabilities faced by Caricom members towards achieving sustainable economic growth, strengthening the relations between Japan and Caricom at the bilateral level and enhancing cooperation at the multilateral level.
“In his intervention, President Ramotar ex-pressed his appreciation for Prime Minister Abe’s recognition of the developmental challenges of Caricom member states particularly the issue of graduation which has seen those member states now qualified as middle or high income countries no longer being eligible for concessional loans and grants from international financial institutions. He acknowledged Prime Minister Abe’s stated support to represent the position of Caricom member states on this issue in the forums of the developed countries,” the statement said.
Ramotar highlighted financing for development as one of the eight Millennium Development Goals that was still to reach its target as very few developed countries had made good on the pledge of 0.7% of GDP towards developmental assistance to vulnerable countries, the ministry said.
The President requested Prime Minister Abe’s further support in advancing the need for this commitment to be met, it said. The statement also noted that in relation to climate change, Ramotar thanked Abe for his government’s assistance to Caricom states in the area of humanitarian responses to natural disasters and in the promotion of measures to address adaptation, mitigation and disaster risk reduction.
Ramotar was accompanied by Minister of Foreign Affairs Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, Finance Minister Ashni Singh, and Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Elisabeth Harper.
