…ink 4 MoUs to collaborate in financial services, other areas
As Guyana moves to set up a junior stock exchange, the country will be turning to its Caribbean partner, Jamaica, to learn from their experience and integrate resources to support both countries. This was revealed by President Dr Irfaan Ali on Friday following the signing of four Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) that will further strengthen bilateral cooperation between Guyana and Jamaica. He witnessed the inking of the agreements alongside Jamaican Prime Minister (PM) Dr Andrew Holness, who was on a two-day state visit in Georgetown.
These MoUs were signed by Foreign Affairs Minister Hugh Todd and his Jamaican counterpart, Senator Kamina Johnson-Smith, focusing on four main areas of cooperation: the protocol amending the agreement on economic, technical and cultural cooperation; agricultural cooperation; defence and security cooperation; and the development of financial services between the two Governments.
According to the Guyanese leader, the Jamaican financial system has a lot of maturity that Guyana and the wider Caribbean region can learn and benefit from. “That is why we are particularly very pleased that we are able to sign this MoU on financial services. Given the fact that we are now proceeding on a junior stock exchange, the expertise of Jamaica, having our insurance company more integrated, our financial systems more integrated, our banking system more integrated, our means of settlement more integrated – this is what that opens up the opportunity for. And there is a lot of work in the financial architecture and system that will emerge out of these engagements,” he posited.
Security sector
Similarly, President Ali noted that the two Caribbean nations will also be working closely in the security sector, an area in which he also praised the Jamaican leader for the work done back home in tackling crime. “There are important opportunities that we have discussed. We are building a world-class academy; training is important. Cyber security is important. Data sovereignty is important. So, when we speak about security, we are not speaking about it in a narrow traditional sense. We are exploring security in its entire ecosystem. And we look forward to working closely with Jamaica, especially given the financial services that you provide, on how we can build out this security architecture that is comprehensive and also how we can maybe work towards common infrastructure to support each other,” Ali stated. This collaboration, the Guyanese Head of State pointed out, extends to Guyana Defence Force (GDF), which is already collaborating with its Jamaican counterpart in a number of areas. “We are looking to increase that,” the President noted. He went onto add that Guyana’s National Defence Institute, which is linked to work being done by the United States (US) and other regional countries, is also available for Jamaican security forces to tap into.
Eye-opener
The Guyanese made similar offers for a number of other areas that the two countries have pledged to collaborate in, including education, housing, energy, tourism, culture and technology-sharing. “The last…48 hours was really an eye-opener for both of us on the similarity of our challenges, the similarity of our priorities, the similarity of our aspirations. And I want to say that it has really laid the basis through which greater trust, greater confidence, greater partnership will emerge,” President Ali declared. The signing of the MoUs was just one of the outcomes of the intense working visit by the Jamaican PM and his team.
According to PM Holness, “Today, we signed various MoUs, but that should not be interpreted as the entirety of the engagement. Those are just what we could formalise within the time. The breadth of our exchanges and the potential of our collaboration and cooperation is extensive. All kinds of things we have discussed, including regional and diplomatic issues. And it is clear that Jamaica and Guyana are very much aligned. And we have a similar outlook on the world; similar understanding of the changing dynamics and the new nature of global politics. But we also share a very positive outlook on our economic prospects. We are both very prospecting in terms of our leadership, always looking for opportunities and seeing where we can make the most out of the resources that we have… and there are some ideas that I will take away from my visit to stimulate in Jamaica as well.” The Jamaican leader wrapped up this two-day state visit to Guyana on Friday.
The post Guyana to tap Jamaica’s expertise as Junior Stock Exchange takes shape appeared first on Guyana Times.
