Guyana-Venezuela talks
Commercial ties to be reactivated
Stabroek News
May 1, 2003
Agreements aimed at reactivating commercial exchanges between Guyana and Venezuela and giving impetus to the United Nations Good Officer process were reached in talks between Guyana’s Foreign Minister, Rudy Insanally and his Venezuelan counterpart, Rod Chaderton.
The talks took place in Guyana over the past two days when Chaderton, who returned to Caracas yesterday, visited Guyana at Insanally’s invitation.
A joint press statement issued at the end of Chaderton’s visit said that the two ministers had agreed to promote business visits at the earliest opportunity to reactivate commercial exchanges. The first of these visits will be by a team of high-level officials from Venezuela who will be accompanied by a group of businessmen representing various sectors.
They also agreed on the importance of negotiating a new Air Transport Agreement aimed at enhancing and facilitating the flow of passengers and cargo between Guyana and Venezuela, and the timely completion of the remaining procedures for the sale of fuel at concessional terms to Guyana under the Caracas Energy Accord.
They also undertook to encourage an expeditious signing of a telecommunication co-operation agreement between the respective regulatory authorities, given the significant advances made towards its conclusion.
And in the interest of promoting infrastructure development, Chaderton’s delegation “indicated the interest shown by Venezuelan construction firms to offer development projects in this sector, particularly those related to the construction of houses and infrastructure and communication development within the framework of a comprehensive programme which would include the development and financing of projects.”
The statement said too that Insanally and Chaderton welcomed the financing by the Andean Co-operation Fund of “the pre-feasibility and feasibility studies, including the environmental and social impact assessments of the proposed Bochinche-Georgetown Road, a vital infrastructure that could become a direct link within the framework of the South American Regional Infra-structural Integration Initia-tive.”
On the issue of the UN Good Officer mechanism for dealing with the border controversy between the countries, the sides agreed that the Guyana and Venezuelan facilitators, Ralph Ramkarran SC and Luis Herrera Marcano, who met during Chaderton’s visit, will give priority to arranging an early meeting with the United Nations Good Officer Oliver Jackman in preparation for the foreign ministers of the two countries to meet UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan later this year.
The statement said the ministers had also reviewed the decisions taken at the II and III meetings of the High Level Bilateral Commission held in February and October last year and “reaffirmed their commitment to accelerate the implementation of the activities of this Commission.”
“The advancement of functional and economic co-operation between the two countries would redound significantly to the social and economic development of the peoples of both countries.”
Accordingly they agreed that the sub-committee on health would be convened by the end of May and the sub-committee on culture would be convened in the second half of this year.
