With Guyana’s economy continuing to expand rapidly, Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh today met with the State Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan, Mr. Iwao Horii and a Japanese team at the Ministry of Finance to discuss deepening the commercial and trade ties between the two countries so that Japan can partner with Guyana on its massive development trajectory. Mr. Horii was accompanied by the non-resident Ambassador of Japan to Guyana, His. Excellency Akima Umezawa and other officials. During the meeting Minister Singh was accompanied by a team from the Finance Ministry.
The two teams, in underscoring the long-standing and highly valued bilateral partnership between Guyana and Japan, also elaborated on furthering their partnership in several sectors. Minister Singh noted that this was especially since Guyana is undergoing rapid economic transformation and expansion across all sectors as he highlighted the timely opportunity for the two countries to work together at various levels.
“We will be very interested in exploring how we can achieve deeper and more economic and commercial and trade ties, and having more Japanese companies present in Guyana, and we’re happy to speak with you about how that can be achieved. We feel that your visit sends a very clear signal at a very high level of the Japanese commitment to deepen this relationship,” Minister Singh pointed out.
He emphasized further that ‘Japan is one of the most industrialized countries of the world with one of the largest economies, the best technology and some of the world’s largest and most sophisticated companies.
“So, you’re in a position where there is much that we can learn from Japan and Japanese companies, and there’s much that we can benefit from the experience that Japan has and Japanese companies have,” Dr. Singh added.
Mr. Horii also expressed his government’s interest in furtherance of the relationship between the two countries.
“I recognize the great importance of strengthening relations with your country, which has been experiencing remarkable economic growth,” he said as he noted that the meeting was impeccably timed as is a prelude to the upcoming 60th anniversary since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and Guyana to be celebrated next year.
The high-level visit by Minister Horii serves as an important catalyst to further strengthen bilateral cooperation and explore new areas of mutual economic growth between the two countries.
The Japanese government has been assisting Guyana in a number of areas in support of the government’s policy on improving the quality of citizens’ lives. Only in January this year, the two countries signed a concessional agreement to upgrade water treatment infrastructure in Diamond on the East Bank of Demerara.
