President Dr Irfaan Ali said that enhanced collaboration with the Dominican Republic (DR) would support Guyana’s drive to accelerate its development.
During a panel discussion at the United Caribbean Forum by the bilateral chamber of commerce (represented in DR as Guyana Cham and in Guyana as DR Cham), at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, President Ali said that the Government aims to make the necessary adjustments to ensure that Guyana becomes on par with the developed world.
Against this backdrop, the Head of State explained that the Government has taken the approach of “building tomorrow, today”. He said that his Government is now applying world-class technology methods, and best practices to reduce the lag time in which Guyana will have to catch up with the rest of the world and take a lead position on many important global issues.
“It is for this reason, we see the DR as a critical part, in bridging this gap, when you speak about tourism, scale and capacity in the private sector, leveraging capital, looking at the value-added industry, in food production, all of these things, the DR would have…developed tremendous capacity and capability in.
“And, we see great synergy in the government and the private sector, working together in aligning those synergies and expanding the opportunities.”
The Head of State underscored that the key areas of cooperation that the two countries and their respective private sectors will focus on include: food security and agriculture; climate security, especially as it relates to the utilisation of forests as a tool to combat climate change and as an asset to generate revenue; energy security, as it relates to building out the transport and logistics sector and the use of science and technology to transform Guyana’s human resource assets, among many other areas.
“This, of course, requires governance institutions, systems, standards and services and this is where we are also collaborating with the DR so that we can apply the best global standards, we can build the most transparent systems, and we can realign our institutions to work in line with what we are building in Guyana, and to integrate the institutions to the goals that we are setting ourselves.”
President Ali pointed out that he has been working along with the President of the Dominican Republic, HE Luis Abinader on creating the supporting infrastructure.
“We’ve already seen successes. There are DR companies partnering with Guyanese companies in the building out of hotels, building out of stadiums, and in healthcare. We have collaboration already in tourism and training. So we’re already, in a relatively short period, in one year, seeing the fruits of the labour.”
Former President of the United States of America, Bill Clinton was featured at the event as a special guest. He said that his foundation, the Clinton Foundation, will assist the two countries in building the unity they want.
He added that countries in the Americas should work closer together and he hopes that the partnership between the two governments, private sectors, and non-governmental organisations; will “give new life to Caricom, and new life to any organisations that are active here”.
“We are almost always stronger together…,” Clinton said, stating that the forum is a “big and good thing” and that he hopes “we can give life to it after this conference”.(INewsGuyana)…[+]

ARGENTINA – Argentina accused Venezuela of cutting the electricity supply to its embassy in Caracas after the diplomatic mission hosted a meeting with the country’s opposition leaders, the latest sign of souring relations between the two South American nations’ ideologically opposed governments.
In a statement, the Office of Argentine President Javier Milei claimed the embassy’s power was turned off last Monday in a “deliberate action that endangers the safety of Argentine diplomatic personnel and Venezuelan citizens under protection.”
Argentine diplomats had invited the Venezuelan opposition leaders, who were not named in the statement, to the mission out of concern stemming from “the deterioration of the institutional situation and the acts of harassment and persecution directed against political figures in Venezuela,” it added.
CNN has contacted the governments of Venezuela and Argentina for comment.
Tensions have been simmering between Buenos Aires and Caracas after Venezuela’s socialist President Nicolás Maduro criticized far-right Milei’s election victory in November last year, claiming the “neo-Nazi extreme right” had won power in Argentina, CNN en Español previously reported.
Venezuela’s opposition has accused Maduro’s government of repressing its leaders and stifling any free and fair campaigning ahead of the country’s presidential elections on July 28.
Maduro, who has ruled Venezuela since the death of his mentor President Hugo Chavez in 2013, announced on March 17 that he’s running for re-election for another six-year term. It is unclear whether he will face any real challenge, as his main rival, María Corina Machado, has been barred from standing over corruption allegations, which she denies.
Under Maduro’s rule, Venezuela has suffered hyperinflation and an unprecedented economic collapse, deepened by sanctions imposed by the United States in 2017 against its vital oil and gas sector.
The US partially rolled back punitive measures on Caracas in late 2023 but in January reinstated economic sanctions against a Venezuelan state-owned mining company following the barring of Machado from the election.
Colombia and Brazil issued statements Tuesday expressing concern over the opposition’s ability to fairly compete in the upcoming presidential contest.
Maduro criticized foreign governments which he claimed, “seek to intervene in the internal affairs of Venezuela.” (CNN)…[+]

LEBANON – Hezbollah has said it launched dozens of rockets at Kiryat Shmona, an Israeli border town, in response to Israeli strikes on Lebanon’s southern village of al-Habbariyeh that killed seven people.
The Israeli military and the Iran-aligned Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, have been exchanging near-daily fire across the border since October when the current conflict in Gaza started.
About 30 rockets were launched from Lebanon towards northern Israel yesterday, according to the Israeli military. Israeli emergency services said a 25-year-old factory worker in Kiryat Shmona was killed.
The Israeli army’s attacks on al-Habbariyeh hit a paramedic centre linked to a Lebanese Sunni Muslim group. The Emergency and Relief Corps said the victims were volunteers.
Reporting from al-Habbariyeh, Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr said young men were killed in the Israeli strikes that “totally destroyed” the emergency health centre.
“People here tell us that the men who were inside the building were paramedics, volunteers and university students, all in their early 20s,” Khodr said. “They were helping the people in this border region where we’ve seen daily exchanges of fire between Israel and … Hezbollah.”
While the Israeli army claimed it had killed a significant operative, Khodr reported that locals said “that is nothing but fabricated lies … this was a civilian target”.
Hezbollah promised to avenge the attack, saying it “will not pass without punishment”.
Lebanon’s Ministry of Health condemned the air strike yesterday and said “these unacceptable attacks violate international laws and norms, especially the Geneva Convention, which stresses the neutrality of health centres and health workers”.
Khodr reported: “This is not the first time a health centre has been hit in the ongoing confrontations along the border. We’ve seen numerous attacks against health centres especially in front-line villages and we have seen paramedics killed.”
The Israeli army claimed it struck “a military building” and killed a member of the al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, or the Islamic Group, a Lebanese political and armed outfit.
The target of the Israeli air strike had “promoted plots towards Israeli territory” and was “eliminated”, the military said in a post on social media, along with “other terrorists” who were in the building.
“These people will tell you that Israel’s strategy from day one has been to depopulate villages close to the border,” Khodr reported.
“They are trying to create some sort of a buffer zone, to make it difficult for civilians to live here. Nearly 100,000 people have already left. In this particular village, people are still here, but there is growing concern that it will start coming under fire,” she added.
Last month, Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah said Israel will pay a price “in blood” for killing Lebanese civilians, signalling the conflict across the Lebanon-Israel border could intensify.(Al Jazeera)…[+]