Georgetown : The A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) Government will be prioritising regional integration, President David Granger told Trinidadian based media entity WIN TV on during an interview.
Asked about future cooperation between Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana, the president said that as someone who studied in that country, he was very grateful and respectful of the hospitality shown to him.
His first meeting on taking office was to engage with Caricom Secretary General Dr. Irwin LaRocque, and President Granger said that he gave his assurance that the Caribbean Community will be at the forefront of his administration’s foreign policy. He added that all are aware of the close bonds among Trinidad, Barbados, Jamaica and Guyana, as they were the first four independent states in the region.
“I will be going to the Caribbean Heads of Government meeting, next July, and I look forward to meeting with the heads of all 14 countries so that we can advance the Caribbean Community”. This is a top priority, he added as all of them can learn “a lot from each other, i.e improve their economies. I must admit that things have not been going quickly enough, in my view and I hope that one of the things we will be able to achieve…is the quickening of the pace of the Caribbean Integration Movement. Trinidad is pivotal to what happens in the Caribbean”.
President Granger will be accompanied by Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge, and he said he intends to translate talk into action, hence his main reason for choosing an economist to head that key post, because he is “talking economics”.
The president was asked about efforts to have many in the Diaspora return to Guyana’s shores. He noted that given the fact that many overseas based Guyanese returned home to vote, the APNU+AFC Administration has already commenced attracting members of the Diaspora to return on their own.
In terms of cooperation on the national level with the former government, he explained that with the political opposition gaining 32 Parliamentary seats, a large portion of Guyanese supported them. It is with this in mind, he said that the PPP/C has been written to, with the aim of forming a “Government of National Unity”. This, President Granger said, was part of “the strategy of forming a government of national unity”.
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