Georgetown, 6 July 2022 (TDI): Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali, President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, and Mia Amor Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados, attended the 43rd Regular Meeting of the Caribbean Community’s Conference of Heads of Government.

Barbados signed new agreements with two of its CARICOM neighbors, providing for more government cooperation and the development of potential in several sectors of economic activity for their people.

The relationship between Barbados and Guyana extends back to the establishment of diplomatic relations between Barbados and Guyana on November 30, 1966.

On the 5th of July 2002, the respective governments of the two countries signed an Agreement for the Deepening of Bilateral Cooperation in Georgetown.

Both parties embrace the principle of healthy interdependent cooperation between nations and are convinced that closer economic and cultural cooperation between their countries will enhance the process of regional integration within the Caribbean Community.

They work hard in commerce, investment, marine affairs, tourism, air services, agriculture, forestry, non-timber forest products, sports, culture, and youth affairs.

The Parties have agreed to continue their engagement in the following areas, using a range of connectivity mechanisms, including people-to-people encounters and the use of information and communication technologies:

  1. Food Security, Aquaculture, and Agriculture
  2. Quarrying and mining
  3. International Transportation and Tourism
  4. Promotion of Trade and Business
  5. Energy
  6. Manufacturing
  7. Education, technical and vocational training, and capacity development
  8. Security Cooperation
  1. Measures for Bilateral Integration
Barbados Agreement
Barbados Signs New Cooperation Agreements with Guyana & Suriname
Highlights of the Agreement
  • Officials placed in each other’s Ministry of Agriculture.
  • Establishment of a Joint Working Group on Food and Nutritional Security comprised of Ministries in charge of agriculture and health, as well as state-owned agricultural and commercial enterprises.
  • Shade house export from Guyana to Barbados.
  • The export of 1,000 artificially inseminated black belly sheep in tranches from Barbados to Guyana.
  • The establishment of a corporation to oversee the production of black belly sheep, as well as the development of a youth program that involves differently-abled people to work on a fifty (50) acre farm in Guyana on a rotational basis.
  • Identifying a suitable agricultural community in Guyana with whom to partner with Barbadian farmers on large-scale black belly sheep production in Guyana.
  • Increase poultry production in order to reduce food import bills and improve regional food security.
  • Build a Food Terminal with functioning plants and facilities in both Barbados and Guyana for local consumption and export to the region.
  • Create a trading hub in Barbados.
  • Guyana will offer Barbados an aquaculture plan that includes fish processing and packaging.
  • The Agriculture Ministries of Barbados and Guyana will launch a youth exchange program for aquaculture training.
  • Early start of work by officials from both nations on standardization and harmonization of sanitary and phytosanitary norms and processes.

The 43rd Regular Meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government concludes this afternoon in Paramaribo.

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