Former U.S. President, William Jefferson Clinton will be the featured speaker at the United Caribbean Forum, which will be held at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) in Georgetown on March 26. The Bilateral Dominican Republic-Guyana Chamber of Commerce is facilitating the inaugural event in collaboration with other key stakeholders.
According to the Chamber, the forum aims to unite regional business titans, policymakers, and industry experts to address a range of matters that will help propel Guyana’s development. Regional energy security, workforce housing communities, tourism, carbon credits, hospitality, and real estate development are among the topics to be discussed.
During a press briefing at the Embassy of the Dominican Republic on Saturday, Ambassador to Guyana Ernesto Torres-Pereyra explained that other notable political figures are slated to join former President Clinton, including Vice President and chief policymaker for Guyana’s oil sector, Bharrat Jagdeo. Head of the Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest), Dr Peter Ramsaroop and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of InterEnergy, Rolando Gonzalez-Bunster are also slated to participate.
“There will be several opportunities for engagement on Tuesday, but overall, they will discuss the notion of how strong we can be as a region if we unite our development efforts to ensure certain key goals regarding energy and food security are achieved,” said Ambassador Torres-Pereyra.
The Ambassador also noted that representatives of the Puntacana Group, one of the Dominican Republic’s main growth factors, will participate in the upcoming session. “The fact that they are coming, together with former President Clinton, will send a message to the world that we trust the institutional and legal framework of Guyana,” he said.
Regarding the former U.S. leader’s imminent presence, the Ambassador said his team is “extremely excited” about this opportunity. He said it demonstrates that Guyana is truly the focus of the international community for good reasons. Further, the envoy intimated that former President Clinton has a very close relationship with key players in the Dominican Republic’s private sector, and he had expressed his desire to understand more about the development process taking place in Guyana.
“Since we have people like Rolando Gonzalez-Bunster of InterEnergy and all the other members from our Chamber of Commerce who are also interested in and are definitely coming to explore opportunities here, they decided to come together so they can also present that notion of a united Caribbean,” the Ambassador explained.
The envoy said the foregoing efforts also build upon the work led by Guyana’s President, Dr. Irfaan Ali and the President of the Dominican Republic, Luis Rodolfo Abinader Corona, in impressing upon the international community that the Caribbean is a region of potential and peace. He said these are important characteristics when seeking to attract more foreign direct investment. Further, the Ambassador said the presence of the former U.S President will not only solidify this point but lend to enriching the discussions needed to support Guyana’s astounding development trajectory.
