Partnership & unified leadership is critical to achieving Government's vision - President Ali
The Agri-Investment Forum and Expo were launched on Friday at the Arthur Chung Convention Center and will be held from May 19th to the 21st under the theme “Investing in vision 25 by 2025.”
The Agri-Investment Forum and Expo aim to bring together all stakeholders so that investment in agriculture and food production can be facilitated to address CARICOM’s $US6B food import bill.
President Dr Irfaan Ali in his speech at the launch said addressing the issue of food security is a complex issue that requires a multifaceted approach.
“It is not about just producing the food, it is about financing, it is about technology, it is about partnership, it is about inclusion of women and youth, it is about shared responsibility, it is about transport and logistics, it’s about niche markets, it’s about job creation, it is about research and development, it is bringing all these different areas together in unison that will allow us to achieve this target.” In this regard, the Head-of-state stressed the importance of the private sector involvement in achieving the 2025 target. According to President Ali, the vision will not be successful unless the public and private sectors facilitate each other. To this end, President Ali noted that regional stakeholders must be unified leadership to achieve the 25 by 2025 goal. Financial institutions were also charged with finding affordable initiatives which will help to make the goal a reality. The main aim of this exposition is to identify tangible ways to achieve the 25 by 2025 vision of reducing the food import bill. It will also make potential investors and other stakeholders aware of the new and emerging opportunities in the CARICOM agriculture sector including technological and logistical solutions.
“So the investment expo is really an opportunity to bring together researchers, the global companies, the markets, financial institutions, the leaders, we have already more than 6 Prime Ministers and Heads of states committed to attending the conference….bringing the financial institutions together right here in Guyana.” The Head of state said already, 20 international companies, 35 regional companies and 53 local companies have committed to involving themselves in the Agri-Investment Forum and Expo.
