Guyana represented at Caribbean at PetroCaribe summit

Georgetown: Guyana has joined 16 other Caribbean nations in a meeting with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, as the oil rich country celebrated the 10th Anniversary Commemorative Summit of the PetroCaribe Agreement in Jamaica over the weekend.
Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge said that Guyana was represented by Ambassador George Wilfred Talbot at the two-day event which commenced Saturday, September 5, 2015 at the Montego Bay Convention Centre (MBCC), Jamaica.
Maduro arrived in Montego Bay, after flying directly from Qatar to meet with Caribbean leaders for the PetroCaribe Summit. Upon his arrival, he described the Venezuela-led oil bloc as being “the foundation for the construction of a new independence in Latin America and the Caribbean”.
The summit included a commemorative ceremony and a plenary session, which examined the activities and achievements of PetroCaribe over the past decade, while agreeing on decisions going forward.
The meeting in Jamaica also focused on examining the progress PetroCaribe has made in improving access to energy in the Caribbean Region, and formulating new strategies on expanding the project in the future. According to a summit schedule, the meeting also included discussions on reducing hunger and poverty in the Caribbean, along with boosting ties between member states.
During his opening remarks, President Maduro praised the successful efforts of the organisation.
“It has turned into an integer formula, a miracle, a formula of integration, of prosperity …and has contributed economic, energetic and social stability for the Caribbean,” the President said.
“We can say with certainty that without PetroCaribe, our Caribbean would be a Mediterranean,” he added, referring to the refugee crisis brewing in the Mediterranean Sea at Europe’s borders.
The President also pledged to develop a comprehensive plan for the Caribbean energy bloc in the next 10 years, spanning from 2015-2025.
PetroCaribe was the brainchild of Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chávez, who understood that social and economic development in lower income countries of the Region was hindered by the need to spend on an indispensable resource – oil.
According to teleSUR, the PetroCaribe Energy Cooperation Agreement was formally constituted on June 29, 2005, and signed by 14 countries. The initiative aims to reduce the socioeconomic inequality through financial solidarity and cooperation.
In order to address structural inequalities, PetroCaribe signed an agreement with the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA) in order to establish the Alba Caribbean Fund as a mechanism to promote social economic development projects in the member states.
The PetroCaribe alliance provides member countries with Venezuelan oil at low interest rates and with a long-term payment plan. The preferential reimbursement plan allows Government to reduce immediate spending on energy in order to invest in social services such as education, health and development projects.
According to a 2014 report published by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, the news agency reported, the PetroCaribe initiative has provided the Caribbean Community countries with financing for oil purchases worth about 3.5 per cent of sub regional Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and about six of GDP for the small islands of the Economic Union of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).