Source: Loop News Caribbean
Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago are exploring a cargo ferry service that will transport food and people between the two CARICOM nations.
L-R: Guyana's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hugh Todd, President of Guyana, Dr Irfaan Ali; Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Dr Keith Rowley and Minister of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs, Dr Amery Browne.
This announcement was made on Sunday morning when Guyana's Foreign Affairs Minister Hugh Todd and T&T's Foreign Affairs Amery Browne signed a Memorandum of Understanding agreeing to remove non-tariff barriers and explore addressing several areas of concern that can impact the agricultural and agro-processing sectors.
The signing was done at the State House in Georgetown, Guyana before President Mohamed Irfaan Ali and Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley.
President Mohamed Ali in announcing that discussions are already started on the "Cargo Pluss Ferry Facility" pointed out that the two countries "cannot have any issues unless we create the platform, the vehicles that allow us to do that," praising the signing of the MOU.
He called on both Foreign Ministers to try the implementation of the MOU as projects and "not the normal operation style of the Foreign Affairs Ministry," Ali said, "for this to be successful this has to be looked at differently," Guyana's President declared.
T&T Prime Minster Dr Keith Rowley lauded the MOU saying that it is an indication of what can be done within Caricom to "disentangle" the countries from various systems, "We have to put ourselves in food supply situations that would not be destroyed by others elsewhere."
"We have to shift our investment patterns to bring to bear our technical expertise which we have here in Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and elsewhere in Caricom," Dr Rowley said, "we have to insulate ourselves from the external pressures and that is what we are about."
The signing of this MOU comes as the Agri Investment Forum comes to an end in Guyana.
Source: Loop News Caribbean