The advent of oil and gas and its positive implications for the country’s economy has afforded the Government of President Irfaan Ali the opportunity to focus on creating a foreign policy apparatus that will enable it to strengthen relations with the rest of the international community, not least those countries in the region and the hemisphere, some of which share historical experiences in common with Guyana. President Ali has, himself, been a frequent traveler, his itinerary having to do mostly with the strengthening of economic ties with countries in the Caribbean, the Middle East and South America, mostly.
Whereas language, for the most part, has limited official visits from Guyana to other countries in South America (with the exception of Suriname and Brazil) President Ali last week paid a visit to the Dominican Republic, the reason for which, according to official reports, was to sign agreements aimed at boosting trade and otherwise strengthening the country’s petro relations with the rest of the hemisphere.
Unsurprisingly, the primary take away from President Ali’s Dominican Republic visit was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) designed to enable cooperation to recruit companies to build a 50,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Guyana that would, if it were to become a reality, translate Guyana into a bona fide global petro power. The completion of a project of that kind, would, according to a Reuters reading of the “preliminary agreement,” mean that the DR would hold a 51% stake in the company, though such an agreement would allow access to more accessible, and by extension, cheaper refining facilities.
The Agreement was signed by President Irfaan Ali and Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader in Santo Domingo. The Dominican Republic may not be one of South America’s ‘heavy hitters’ in the oil and gas sector, though the country’s proficiency in sectors that include mining, tourism, manufacturing (medical devices, electrical equipment, pharmaceuticals, and chemicals), energy, real estate, infrastructure, telecommunications and agriculture has resulted in its economy being ranked the seventh largest in Latin America, and the largest in the Caribbean and Central American region.
The country is reportedly on track to realize its goal of becoming a high-income country by 2030 and is expected to grow by 79% during the current decade. The ‘jewel’ in Santo Domingo’s economic ‘crown’ is the Pueblo Viejo mine, reportedly the largest such mine in Latin America, while tourism and the creation of free trade zones has made the service sector the leading employer in the country. Guyana’s world class oil discovery, and its implications for Guyana’s linkages with the rest of the international community, has increasingly presented President Ali with a weighty overseas travel schedule, a pursuit undertaken largely in the process of pursuing a foreign policy agenda that is now focusing on closer strategic ties with the rest of the international community.
The country’s oil and gas discoveries and the potential for maximizing the country’s broader economic opportunities has taken him to countries in the Middle East, Europe, North America, South America, India and Africa, undertakings that have helped to build the country’s international profile. Guyana’s enhanced international profile has also attracted increasing numbers of regional and international political figures to the country, one of the more recent of those being United States Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.
