Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves is expected to return to St. Vincent from Guyana today (Tuesday) after meetings with President Donald Ramotar and key ministers, and CARICOM Secretary General, Irwin LaRocque.
The office of the Prime Minister said on Monday that Gonsalves had a working dinner meeting, with Ramotar and several key ministers, to discuss matters of mutual interest Sunday night.
On Monday, he was slated to meet with LaRocque and senior members of the staff at the CARICOM Secretariat to discuss a number of pressing issues, in preparation for his assumption of the chairmanship of CARICOM in January 2014.
This is also in preparation for the 27th meeting of the CARICOM Bureau of Ministers, scheduled for Trinidad and Tobago on Sept. 17.
Meanwhile, Gonsalves said on Saturday that his government will be offering educational opportunities to Guyanese.
“I am offering Guyanese — a certain number to be decided, maybe 10, maybe 12, maybe 15 — for them to come here to pursue to do associate degrees in different things; maybe in the technical field, maybe one or two can come to do the associate degrees in education, or get involved in the nursing school, and some of our people would go down there. We have to strengthen our bond and we have to do some things with them with agriculture,” he said.
Gonsalves said, “some people have this thing about Guyanese,” but added, “Guyanese who come here, they have done quite well and they help to develop this country.
“And I love when I see Caribbean people around in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, just like I love to see Vincentians in other parts of the Caribbean. We are one people and we have to open our doors and welcome other people and have other people welcome us,” he said at the opening of a smart hospital here.
This is good. I hope that its just the beginning. The tertiary education sector could be a potential area of some measure of economic growth in SVG. We just have to do it properly. We need to try to get the best quality and most relevant associate degree programs that we can and market them to the wider region. The more foreign students, the better.
That’s a good step in the right direction, having lived in Barbados for sometime, the way Guyanese are treated is ridiculous, the part I don’t understand is these very same Guyanese developed Barbados, particularly in their infrastructure of several large hotels on the island. Guyana does have a good university, so it would be good if Vincentians go there to further their studies as well, I think we’d benefit more by this.