Bilateral Meeting- Hon. Minister Oneidge Walrond and International Trade Centre Executive Director- Ms Pamela Coke-Hamilton

Honourable Oneidge Walrond, M.P., Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, this morning, met with International Trade Centre (ITC) Executive Director- Ms Pamela Coke-Hamilton.

During the meeting, the ITC Executive Director spoke about the role of ITC in earlier projects in Guyana related to the production of coconuts and cassava processing. While the initiative is attributed to the CARICOM region, there has been a more focused approach to Guyanese companies, including small and medium business enterprises.

The Executive Director highlighted that ITRC has been working together with Guyana on its SheTrades Hub projects. She also commended Guyana for its regional and global leadership roles in Food and Nutrition Security.

Minister Walrond spoke about the work her ministry has been doing in relation to the reinvigoration of small businesses and finding ways of getting these businesses to be more established and permanent.

She also highlighted the efforts of her ministry and by extension, of the Government of Guyana to provide an avenue for Guyanese small business owners to tap into regional markets.

Also, during the meeting, the Executive Director, Coke-Hamilton, highlighted the launch of ITC’s Gender-Response Procurement campaign, which seeks to encourage countries to allocate a percentage of public procurement in favour of women, as women’s participation in procurement in many countries is essentially less than one per cent.

Minister Walrond alluded to this similar point, highlighting that her ministry has implemented the requirement for the greater involvement of small businesses in public procurement.

In July 2024, the ITC team visited Guyana on a scoping mission to assess the inception phase of potential projects to be explored and developed under a European Union-funded initiative entitled “Strengthening nutritious and sustainable value chains in the Caribbean through alliances.”

The goals of the initiative seek to align with the EU international partnership priorities, as well as the CARICOM 25×25 initiative being led by Guyana.

Honourable Oneidge Walrond, M.P., was accompanied by Mr Colin Luckie, First Secretary, Guyana’s Permanent Mission to the WTO.

Minister Walrond is presently in Geneva to participate in the World Trade Organisation’s annual Public Forum event. She will be a featured speaker during the two panel discussions, the High-level Plenary- “Inclusive policies, global impact: Ensuring the best use of special and differential treatment” and “The Big Blue Agenda: Can SIDS thrive in a Re-globalized World?”

Minister Walrond will also meet with Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director General of the WTO later today.