Guyana, Suriname sign cooperation agreements in health, agriculture

Presidents of Guyana and Suriname, His Excellency Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali and His Excellency, Chandrikapersad Santokhi overlooked the signing of two cooperation agreements between their two countries at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre.

Guyana’s Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha, MP, and Suriname’s Minister of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries, Parmanand Sewdien signed the Protocol concerning the Trade in Fresh Agricultural Produce.

Its terms and conditions relate only to commercial shipments of agricultural produce. Its focus is on the local and organic production of the fresh produce by providing guidelines with respect to conditions under which they will be produced, stored in pack houses and eventually packaged and transported to each country.

Effort will be made to ensure international obligations, standards and guidelines are met, which relate to the production, certification, processing, packaging, storing and transporting of agricultural produce between the two countries.

The Protocol would see the two nations assisting each other to access new markets as they seek to trade agricultural produce. Guyana would benefit from Suriname’s access to the European market, while Suriname would benefit from Guyana’s access to the North American market.

Guyana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs (ag.) Dr. Frank Anthony, MP, and Suriname’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Business and International Cooperation, Albert Ramdin signed the Agreement on the establishment of services in the field of healthcare.        

The Ministries of Health are expected to strengthen strategic collaboration, provide effective capacity building for healthcare personnel and specialty treatment for patients. The Ministries will also develop joint programmes, especially in professional healthcare and public health services, disease control, diagnostic imaging, laboratory services, pharmaceutical services and research.

The parties also agree that in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic, they will coordinate their efforts with respective cross border diagnostics in COVID-19, contact tracing and quarantine, developing a risk communications strategy, COVID-19 awareness and COVID-19 vaccination awareness.

The parties will also cooperate and share experiences in the COVID-19 vaccination campaign.

These two cooperation agreements form part of the efforts of the Governments of Guyana and Suriname to improve the lives of their citizens.