President to attend CELAC Summit in Cuba

Georgetown, GINA, January 24, 2014

 

President Donald Ramotar will be leaving for Cuba to attend the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) Heads of Government Summit. Speaking at a press conference today, the Head of State said that one of the main issues that will be addressed at that forum is poverty and inequality in the region.

He said that Guyana has a lot to offer at this conference; making reference to the recognition that the country received from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in 2012.

Last year, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds received on the Guyana’s behalf, an award at a ceremony in Rome, for being one of the 17 countries in the world to attain the targets set by both the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Number One, and the goal set by the 1996 World Food Summit for halving the absolute number of hungry people by 2015.

“Although Latin America and the Caribbean have made tremendous progress over the last decade or so in fighting poverty and inequality, there is still a lot more to be done. So these are some of the main topics that will engage our attention when we go to Cuba,” the President said.

He added that Guyana has a great input to make at this Summit in terms of sharing information and experiences, since the social programmes that Guyana has been following over the past two decades have been tried, tested and proven to significantly reduce social poverty.

The summit will be held in Havana, Cuba from January 25-29. According to the Cuba Standards, the CELAC summit is the biggest political event to be hosted by Havana in decades. Heads of State and foreign ministers of most member nations are expected to attend.