Georgetown: Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh has said Guyana continues to meet its obligations under the PetroCaribe arrangement.
Guyana’s debt to PetroCaribe was estimated at $198.27 million at the end of 2013 as compared to US$364 million at the end of 2012. Guyana’s debt to PetroCaribe is paid in paddy and rice as settlement for oil from Venezuela.
During his budget presentation in March, Dr Singh had also said that Guyana’s external debt stock stood at US$1.2 billion, a reduction of 8.3 per cent from the previous year.
Dr Singh had stated that towards the end of 2012, Guyana had signed its “first debt compensation agreement with Venezuela which reduced the Petrocaribe debt owed to that country by US$100.8 million, a sum equivalent to the value of rice and paddy shipped from December 2009 to July 2011”.
Government is currently in talks with Venezuela on the possibility of exporting additional products to the Spanish-speaking country under the PetroCaribe arrangement.
Foreign Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett also confirmed that the administration is in talks with Venezuela to expand export.
“So far we are only exporting rice under the PetroCaribe mechanism and discussions to supply additional items have not yet been concluded,” Rodrigues-Birkett had stated.
Since last year, Government had said it was looking to move beyond the new rice agreement under the PetroCaribe deal.
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