President Dr Irfaan Ali on Thursday addressed the Fourth CARICOM SICA Summit where he indicated Guyana’s commitment to work with Countries in Central America to achieve food security.
The Head of State extended an invitation to the Central American Agricultural Council (CAC) to a meeting with the special Ministerial Task Force that is being chaired by Guyana.
Dr Ali said, “I offer a readiness to collaborate with the countries of the hemisphere to strengthen agri-food systems and enhance food security.”
He said this meeting will “establish a time-bound framework in keeping with what CARICOM would have decided over the last two days.”
He also told the Summit that CARICOM has embarked on an agenda to transform the Regional Agricultural sector.
With this in mind, the President also noted that the contribution of the Central American Countries in such discussions paves the way to achieve food security.
He highlighted “Central America as a whole contributes half of the total value of the regional export in Agriculture and food production. Costa Rica is a global player and very competitive in areas of coffee, sugar, banana, grains and vegetables. Now, what does this tell us? This tells that the solution to food security and sustainability lies right in this room. What we require is the commitment and joint approach in achieving food security in the region.”
He posited that countries such as Belize and Guatemala have indicated their support and commitment to CARICOM’s '25 in 5' plan.
He also told the representatives of the various countries, that this summit should not only result in commitment to areas such as climate change, food security, regional security and investment among others but should also send a “strong signal in hitting the reset button.”
However, he adds that those areas can enhance and expand relationships in the regions.
