| President Bharrat Jagdeo said the treatment meted out to Caribbean nationals by immigration officers at some Caribbean ports of entry poses a direct threat to the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).The President was at the time addressing a crowd of close to 4,000 Guyanese at the Antigua and Barbuda multi-purpose Cultural and Exhibition Centre at Perry Bay Thursday evening. The centre was unable to accommodate the number of Guyanese who turned out.According to a release from Government Information News Agency (GINA), Guyanese living in Antigua and Barbuda were briefed on the latest developments in Guyana and were also given the opportunity to interact with the President.Among the main concerns of the gathering was the treatment to Guyanese by Antiguan immigration authorities; crime and security in Guyana; the availability of land for the Guyanese Diaspora and the creation of investment opportunities for Guyanese living abroad.“President Jagdeo was frequently interrupted by rousing applause as he briefed the Guyanese on economic and social services available to the population back home,” the release said.Echoing some of what he said in his address to the opening ceremony of the 29th regular meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government, the President said he was able to share the Guyana experience with debt relief with his colleagues.Guyana has moved its debt stock from 750 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to 45 percent adding that, “we were using some 94 percent of revenue to service that debt and it has come down to 4 percent now”. This prompted loud applause.The Head of State said when the situation is examined, quite a number of middle income countries of the Caribbean, including OECS countries have debts to GDP ratios of more than 10 percent, as high as 180 percent in some cases and they use a significant part of their revenue and foreign exchange to service those debts.For a significant period in Guyana’s post-independence history, the country experienced negative growth and achieving what has been achieved to date is a creditable performance on the part of his administration.As a result, he said, more resources are now being channeled to social services, and alluded to the eight hospitals currently under construction.Regarding the crime situation, he assured that his administration is doing all it can to alleviate the situation.The President reminded however, that Guyana is not the crime capital of the region and ‘we are faring well against other regional states’. Regarding health, Jagdeo alluded to the current training of 750 doctors in Cuba and more than double the amount of nurses required for healthcare delivery in Guyana.There is also a move to create a technical institute in Region Five to create more opportunities for youths in that agriculturally based region.He then addressed a number of issues related to agricultural development in the Caribbean and remained adamant that the region must, in the longer term, convert agriculture to agri-business, based on a higher level of productivity, efficiency, better farming practices and more efficient marketing.He cautioned that this must not be misconstrued to mean that the drive for the development and investment in the sector, are exclusive to Guyana and Guyanese.On the issue of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) and the free movement of people, he echoed his sentiments expressed when he addressed the opening ceremony on Tuesday last as he noted that the CSME would fail if some immigration officers persist with unnecessary harassment of Caribbean people who attempt to exercise their right within the Community.“What I find most disturbing is not the issue of the denial of entry of CARICOM citizens at the various ports of entry of the Community but the humiliation suffered at the hands of some immigration officers at these ports,” he explained.Accompanying the President were Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carolyn Rodrigues, Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Manniram Prashad, Director General in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Elisabeth Harper and Guyana’s Honorary Consul to Antigua and Barbuda, Robert Reis.Minister Rodrigues, who is the former Minister of Amerindian Affairs, took time out to explain the issue of land allocation especially as it relates to this issue under the new Amerindian Act. |
