President Bharrat Jagdeo is leading a ten-member delegation on a week-long visit to India to explore opportunities for expanding economic and technical co-operation between the two countries.

The team will leave today, save for the advanced party which has already departed.

Speaking with reporters yesterday at the Foreign Service Institute, New Garden Street, Foreign Minister Rudy Insanally said that there were great prospects for enhanced co-operation in areas covered under the Guyana/India Joint Commission such as culture, health, gold and diamond industry. All of these India has a great deal of expertise in, including information technology, and pharmaceuticals.

Insanally said that during the visit, President Jagdeo would hold discussions with the President and Prime Minister of India as well as address the federation of the Chambers of Commerce of India. He will have a firsthand look at several manufacturing and information technology complexes in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore among other places as well as the India Council for Agricultural Research. President Jagdeo has also been invited to visit the village in the state of Uttar Pradesh from whence his ancestors came.

Insanally said that work had already been done in these areas to ensure a fruitful visit. To this end, the advanced team has already left for India, including the Foreign Ministry’s Director General, Ambassador Elisabeth Harper and an official from the Ministry of Health.

Insanally said that one of the issues to be raised would be the Guyana-Brazil-India HIV/AIDS initiative. He explained that Guyana was already receiving assistance from the United States following the visit of US Secretary for Health Tommy Thompson and that Health Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy was anxious to ensure that the assistance from India was compatible with the US assistance. In the health field also, Insanally said that the recruitment of doctors would also be explored.

Some of the other government and private sector officials, in addition to Ambassador Harper who will be in the Presidential delegation are Foreign Trade Minister, Clement Rohee, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Gail Teixeira, the Attorney General, Doodnauth Singh SC, Trade Union Congress president, Carvil Duncan, Eddie Boyer, President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Maniram Prashad, Presidential Advisor on Investment and Information, Liaison to the President, Robert Persaud.