PRESS BRIEFING -
Wednesday, September 22, 2004

  AGENDA

•  CONTRACTS
•  GRENADA : A GUYANA RESPONSE
•  VISIT BY THE FOREIGN MINISTER OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
•  ELECTRICITY GENERATING SET FOR LETHEM/MABARUMA
•  POST DIALOUGE CONSIDERATION

CONTRACT

Cabinet at its meeting held on Tuesday, September 24, 2004, offered its No-objection to the award of the following contracts:-

VISIT BY THE FOREIGN MINISTER OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

The Foreign Minister of the People's Republic of China , His Excellency Li Zhoaxing will be visiting Guyana on an official visit from October 2 - 4, 2004.

The visit would further cement the excellent relations that exist between the Governments of Guyana and the People's Republic of China .

Formally, the visit would be the opportunity for both countries to conclude the signing of the $30 M Yuan grant to the Government of Guyana as well as the ratification of the Agreement between NCN and CCTV.

The visit takes place within the back drop of the evolving economic relations between the two countries illustrated by Chinese major involvement in the Skeldon restructuring and the Convention Centre.

GRENADA : A GUYANA RESPONSE

The Grenada disaster continues to occupy the attention of the CARICOM community.

In Guyana , the joint response by Government (through the Civil Defence Commission) and NGOs particularly, the Private Sector has seen the provision of humanitarian aid to Grenada by air and sea and sensitisation of local Guyanese about the Government's offer of repatriation.

Information is being compiled about the responses of Guyanese in Grenada .

Cabinet explored the merits of the mooted Heads of CARICOM's intention to relocate 5 th and 6 th Forms students preparing for external examinations.

The Guyana military will soon be honouring President Jagdeo's pledge to send about 100 troops to Grenada .

It is expected that the GDFs Essequibo will be conveying the troops. A deployment of about six (6) months is expected

The other CARICOM militaries will also likely be deployed in Grenada.

ELECTRICITY GENERATING SET FOR LETHEM/MABARUMA

The generating set (1/2 mega capacity) destined for Lethem has arrived and will be transported to Region 9 for installation.

The installation of this set supports the existing generating set that Lethem Power Company fell back on after the failure of the Moco Moco Hydropower facility

The Government of Guyana is pursuing efforts to rehabilitate the hydro power facility with the Chinese authority.

Following up on President Jagdeo's visit to Region 1 on the occasion of the Amerindian Heritage Village celebrations, Cabinet has initiated procurement efforts to acquire a 0.5 mega unit generating set to supplement the operation of the existing set at Mabaruma.

POST DIALOUGE CONSIDERATION

The PPP/C Administration continues to await a favourable response from the PNCR to its repeated requests to initiate the recommencement of discussion to bring about Parliamentary conclusion of their outstanding issues.

The PPP/C Administration continues to point out the real consequences of the PNCR selective participation in Parliament, that is non-implementation of Constitutional Reform.

It seems obvious that the PNCR intends to subvert the nations commitment to Constitution Reform by preventing the appointments of Important Constitution bodies and their operationalising.

Evidently, the PNCR feels that in the absence of the implementation of the agreed Constitution Reform measures by default greater attention would then be paid to their proposal on Executive Power sharing at the expense of the agreed upon measures.

The PPP/C Administration's position is quite clear and unequivocal on that score. The current of Constitution Reform measures must be implemented with the nation benefiting from the political parties working together for successful outcomes.