Taking Care of Business!

FIRST Vice-President of the European Commission (EC), Frans Timmermans on Wednesday congratulated the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) on its landslide victory in this year’s Local Government Elections (LGEs).

Timmermans described the win as an illustration of the citizenry’s high level of gratitude for the level of development the PPP/C has been bringing to the country.

The highest-level European Union (EU) official to ever visit Guyana spoke at a signing ceremony for another bilateral agreement, this time for a mangrove protection and restoration project along the nation’s coastline.

He also saw the victory as appreciation “for the efforts the government is undertaking to take Guyana into the future.”

Timmermans was the first international diplomat to congratulate the PPP/C after the results came, but he’ll certainly not be the last, as the entire international community is always pleased when electors anywhere vote for continuity, instead of backwardness.

Caribbean governments and institutions also have better experiences developing regional trade and cooperation ties with this PPP/C administration, such as Barbados, St. Vincent & The Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad & Tobago.

Guyana participated in the recent Brazil Summit of 12 South American nations; and last week at the

CARICOM-US Summit in The Bahamas, co-hosted by Vice-President Kamla Harris.

Guyana has also successfully taken its century-old dispute with Venezuela to the International Court of Justice, while also joining other CARICOM nations in The Bahamas to call on the US to lift sanctions against the neighbouring Bolivarian republic.

This administration has admirably cultivated good relations with North and South and is enhancing South-South Cooperation, while strengthening ties with traditional allies, West and East.

Ties have deepened and widened lately too with Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, China, Europe,

India, Gulf and Middle East Arab states.

Nations and investors big and small, have, for the past three decades, also showed more favour for and comfort with PPP/C administrations, which can always be expected to play by international norms, unlike other administrations more bent on separate development according to race and religion, class and geographic (partisan) location.

Guyana is again respected worldwide, a process started under the late President Dr. Cheddi Jagan and his successors after 1992.

Following Dr Jagan’s death and the electorate’s decision to vote for continuity by electing his wife -- and in her own right as the PPP/C’s candidate and longest-serving member of the National Assembly -- the Opposition resorted to violent demonstrations to try to deny her the presidency on the basis of race and birthplace.

Like in 2020 and now in 2023, the same Opposition, even though under different leaders each time, is again refusing to accept being roundly defeated by the PPP/C.

It is for these and other reasons, including admirable handling of ties with allies and investors, that Guyana’s international standing has grown with renewed vitality on the world stage – so much so, that it’s now a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.

The local business community has also long warmed up to this admin- istration’s demonstrated capacity to deliver on its promises to make Doing Business easier in Guyana for both traditional and new, innovative investors and entrepreneurs.

Local business has benefitted from the local Content Act that guarantees them a place in servicing the rapidly-expanding oil and gas sector, as well as in the new infrastructure and development projects under way in all 10 regions.

Guyanese of all races, religions and cultures, have felt the change at home and abroad; and that’s just one of many reasons the vast majority voted to allow this administration to continue taking care of Guyana’s business.