Foreign Secretary, Robert Persaud, is urging the diaspora in Canada to play a meaningful role in the development of Guyana in this new era of development.
According to a Department of Public Information (DPI) release yesterday, the Foreign Secretary made this remark speaking at a diaspora engagement in Canada. He was accompanied by newly appointed High Commissioner to Canada, Keith George.
Persaud expressed the hope that that the diaspora could play a meaningful role in Guyana’s development, especially in the wake of the country’s largest national budget of $789.1 billion which was presented in the National Assembly on Monday.
“In terms of the transformation taking place in our country, we see the diaspora playing a role in terms of moving that forward because if we are looking in terms of a budget of this capacity, you have to look at issues of implementation.
“We are the fastest growing economy in the world and with that, we would require, the need for capacity, for us to put all hands on deck, and now is not a time for us to be squabbling among each other, now is not the time for us to be seeking to have division, now is not the time for us to be pointing fingers, but rather how it is that we can hold each other’s hand and support what it is our country is doing because the world is looking at Guyana,” the Foreign Secretary was quoted as saying.
High Commissioner George in his remarks, outlined several sectors that the Canadian diaspora could help develop in Guyana, including the use of technology in agriculture, while noting that Canada contains the second largest group of Guyanese after the United States. He highlighted that Guyana’s economy remains resilient not only in the oil and gas sector but in other traditional sectors as well.
“We hope that a larger number of Guyanese will travel back to Guyana, if not to remigrate or invest, but to reconnect with the country of their birth. I assure you that Guyana is not the place it used to be a year ago, five years ago, or ten years ago,” he pointed out.
George told the gathering that where Guyana is concerned, the prospects are bright and that they, members of the diaspora, could be agents of change.
“Those of you in the diaspora, I ask you to consider making some of the beneficiaries of your assistance change agents, rather than simply recipients of your help, especially in the area of agriculture.”
