Georgetown, March 24, 2016 Source
Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan, has been invited to join nine other Finance Ministers for two-days of discussions at Harvard University, in Boston, United States of America.
Cabinet recently approved for the minister to attend this and a number of other international conferences.
This was revealed by Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman, today, during the post cabinet briefing at the Ministry of the Presidency.
According to Minister Trotman, the Finance Minister will first attend 57th Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the 31st Inter-America Investment Corporation (ICC) meeting to be held in Nassau, Bahamas, April 7-10, 2016.
At the IDB meeting, Minister Jordan would be accompanied by Governor of the Bank of Guyana and Alternative Governor of the International Monetary Fund (IMF,) Dr. Gobin Ganga. At that meeting Guyana will make a statement on behalf of the Caribbean constituency of the Bank.
Guyana will be pressing for visible engagement during its discussions with the IIC -the private sector arm of the IDB. The IIC provides project financing in the form of direct loans, equity investment and lines of credits to the private sector but that has not been active in Guyana, in past years. Minister Jordan will be accompanied to the IIC meeting by Head of the Multilateral Financial Institution Division of the Ministry of Finance, Sheranne Isaacs.
Minister Trotman explained that the Finance Minister, accompanied by Dr. Ganga would move on from the meetings in Bahamas to the spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank, which are going to be held on April 15 - 17, 2016, in Washington DC.
According to Minister Trotman, key elements of the meeting would be the discussion of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) and the joint World Bank /IMF Development Committee.
Minister Trotman explained that during these engagements, the opportunity will also be taken to hold bilateral meetings with the officials of the IMF, World Bank and IDB as well as other delegates and private sector organisations and civil society groups of interest to Guyana.
Following the spring meetings, Minister Jordan will then attend the Fourth Annual Ministerial Forum for Finance Ministers at Harvard University being held April 17 - 20, 2016.
This prestigious ‘invitation only’ meeting is only open to ten serving Finance Ministers in the World. They will be drawn from Africa, South East Asia and Latin America. The theme of this year gathering is, “Demonstrated leadership and commitment to building national well-being through economic development and social advancement.” The forum is aimed at enhancing Ministerial and political leadership to achieve better value for government investment.
Meanwhile, cabinet has approved Guyana’s attendance at a high level IDB public-private dialogue on trade facilitation to be held on March 30 – 31, 2016 in Argentina. Minister Trotman explained that this dialogue is intended to facilitate open public-private engagement and to seek to improve trade facilitation throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. He said that it will explore how best small economies can integrate their development objectives and move from dialogue to implementation of actions connected with importation, exportation and to facilitate trade. The Permanent Secretary from the Ministry of Business Rajdai Jaggernauth will represent Guyana at this important meeting.
Approval has also been given for Minister of Agriculture, Noel Holder to lead a team to attend a meeting of the Inter-American Institute of Cooperation on Agriculture (IAC.)
The meeting will be conducted at the IAC headquarters in Costa Rica, from April 11 to 15, 2016 and will discuss IAC country strategy 2014 - 2018 based on agriculture priorities and needs identified by Guyana.
At the meeting Minister Holder’s delegation will include CEO, Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA), Richard Cumberbatch and General Manager of the New Guyana Marketing Authority, Ida Sealy-Adams.
Minister Trotman also revealed that approval as also been granted for Guyana’s participation in the first regional seminar on illegal deforestation. The seminar will be hosted by the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) in Brazila, Brazil from April 13 to 14. Guyana’s delegation to this meeting will include; Chairperson of the Guyana Forestry Commission, Jocelyn Dow; Manager of GIS Remote Centre, Guyana Forestry Commission, Towanda Smart and, Technical Officer, Ministry of Natural Resources, Gavin Aguard.