Minister Prashad to lead Guyana 's delegation to China-Caribbean trade forum

Minister Prashad to lead Guyana 's delegation to China-Caribbean trade
forum
Kaieteur News, 4 September 2007

Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Manniram Prashad is to lead
Guyana 's delegation to the China-Caribbean Economic and Trade
Coorporation Forum to be held in the Xiamen Province in China .

Cooperation between China and the Caribbean in trade, investment,
agriculture and fisheries, transport, tourism, finance, and human
resource development will be the focus of the joint economic forum,
which starts Friday and concludes on September 10.

According to a senior Government source, Guyana 's delegation will
include members of the private sector.

Following the opening ceremony of the Forum, which has the theme
“Promote Economic and Trade Cooperation for Common Development”, a
plenary session will be held at the ministerial level.

Private sector delegates are to attend the China-Caribbean business
session, the annual conference of the China-Caribbean Joint Business
Council, a one-on-one business match-making programme and cooperation
seminars in investment and trade, and agriculture and fisheries.

During the Forum, the Caribbean countries and China are expected to
sign a Memorandum of Understanding on Two-Way Investment Promotion
Cooperation, which is intended to enhance mutually beneficial trade and
investment cooperation between the two regions.

Parallel to the 2007 Forum will be the 11th China International Fair
for Investment and Trade (CIFIT), also to be held at the Xiamen
International Conference and Exhibition Centre from September 8 to 11.

The CIFIT promotes international trade, cooperation and investment
through trade fairs, talks on investment projects, discussion fora and
consultations.

China 's Ministry of Commerce sponsors the CIFIT along with co-sponsors
from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the United
Nations Industrial Development Organisation and the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development, among others.

At the first forum in 2005 in Jamaica , Barbados signed several
agreements with China . One such agreement was a Memorandum of
Understanding which designated Barbados as an approved destination for
Chinese group travel and tours.

China and Guyana established diplomatic relations on 27 June 1972.

Since then the bilateral economic and trade cooperation has progressed
smoothly. China and Guyana founded the mixed committee of economic,
trade and technology cooperation in 1984.

So far, nine sessions of the mixed committee have been carried out.

Up to now, the economic and trade agreements signed by both countries
are Trade Agreement signed in 2001 and Agreement on Encouragement and
Reciprocal Protection of Investment signed in 2003.

According to the statistics of China Customs, the bilateral trade
volume between China and Guyana in 2006 reached US$99.1 million, up
185.2 percent.

The main commodities imported by China from Guyana include wood and
woodwork, and products exported from China to Guyana are base metal&
metal ware, textile, electromechanical video equipment, bicycle,
motorcycle.

Chinese enterprise started project engineering and labor service
cooperation with Guyana in1986.

By the end of June 2007 China had accomplished a turnover of US$182.57
million from project engineering and labor service cooperation with
Guyana .

The actual investment from Guyana to China amounted to US$100,000 and
the direct investment from China to Guyana totaled US$D50.288 million.