PM Briceño Takes the Mic at CARICOM Agri-Investment Forum

John Briceño

Prime Minister John Briceño is currently in Georgetown, Guyana for the CARICOM Agri-Investment Forum and Expo which is being held today through to Saturday. It is being held under the theme, “Investing in Vision 25 by 2025.” During the forum, the region’s ability to ensure food security despite issues of the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and disruptions in the global supply chain was discussed. Today, PM Briceño was among the CARICOM leaders who spoke at the forum. The PM spoke about breaking down trade barriers within the region. Here’s an excerpt from his speech. 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“As a CARICOM region, we must do better to remove those technical barriers to trade that most of us impose on each other. Let us instead use our efforts and energies to adopt policies to support the growth of the agro-productive sector, improve market facilitation and develop intraregional transportation. It is a plan which intends to see our region reduce its dependency on food imported products by twenty-five percent in the next three and a half years. To do this, we the member states that make up CARICOM will have to work with our agro-producers to foster accelerated and targeted investment in food production. During our last CARICOM heads of government meeting, we acknowledged that our agri-food sector accounts for more than twenty percent employment in the region. Like Belize, Guyana is blessed with abundant agriculture land and a people able and capable of tilling the fertile soil. And this is why we are so excited about the leadership role President Ali is playing as the lead for agriculture and food security.”

The Prime Minister is accompanied by Minister of Agriculture, Food Security and Enterprise Jose Abelardo Mai and Cabinet Secretary Ambassador Stuart Leslie.