Trade between Guyana, UAE reached US$300M in 2021

…as 1st-ever coders programme with UAE launched to train 150,000 youths

Trade between Guyana and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), with which Guyana has steadily been forging closer ties over the past few years, signing two Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) in two years, reached $300 million last year.
This revelation was made on Wednesday, during the launch of the 150,000 coders initiative – one of the areas of collaboration between Guyana and the UAE. President Dr Irfaan Ali was asked about the $300 million in trade that was recorded between the two countries last year.

Specifically, the President was asked what sectors contributed to this figure and how the Government envisioned trade between the two countries growing. Ali went on to expound on the areas of opportunity between Guyana and the UAE, for collaboration.

“Definitely in the services sector, technology and agriculture, these are low-hanging fruits for us. Smart hospitals, innovation, the use of technology to improve governance systems, enhance transparency and accountability, the ease of doing business,” President Ali said.
“So, we have a lot of meetings with Abu Dhabi development fund, direct engagements with Government corporation and agencies, Government-owned companies, to help us to expedite our transformation –our digital transformation, our technological transformation and the transformation of our services sector,” he explained.
Guyana and the UAE have been forging increasingly closer ties over the last few years. Last year, an MoU was signed between the two countries to advance technical assistance and bilateral cooperation. Another MoU was signed in March of this year.

Coding
This MoU has since blossomed into Guyana and the Region’s first-ever coders initiative, which will see at least 150,000 youths across the country benefiting from skills training to equip them to join the more-technologically advanced workforce being developed by the Government.
Coding is a skill in demand globally whereby companies hire persons to programme computers. In fact, there were approximately 26.9 million persons across the globe working as software developers last year. And with this number expected to rise, coding is by far a viable industry.
At the Arthur Chung Conference Center (ACCC) on Wednesday, hundreds of schoolchildren gathered for the launch of the initiative. In his feature address, President Ali urged the children to take up the opportunity being offered and assured them that the Government would continue to invest in them. He also said that Guyana would lead the way in spreading the coding initiative throughout the Region.

“We have discussed with this team’s prior visit, that this coding project must be one that is available to all our brothers and sisters in the Caricom Region. And Guyana is ready and willing to be that hub and work in partnership with the UAE to make this programme available to all our young people in this Region.
“Because as I’ve said before, we take our regional commitment seriously and our prosperity must lead to regional prosperity. And we will work on opening up this relationship, so that all the countries in Caricom can benefit from this coding initiative we launched today,” President Ali said.
Director General of the Office of the Prime Minister of the UAE, Abdullah Lootah assured the Government of his country’s further willingness to support Guyana. According to Lootah, “The best is yet to come. And the best is yet to be with you. And I would like to take the challenge of Minister Priya (Manickchand). You just tell us how high to jump and we will go even higher.”
The initiative is part of the Government’s vision to promote Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in Guyana. It will be paired with related legislation, with the aim of setting up zones for data services, data centres, and data banks.

Relations with UAE
It was only last year that an agreement was reached for a Guyana Trade Office to be set up in Dubai, UAE. This came about following a successful meeting between representatives of the Guyana Private Sector and the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, led by its President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Hamad Buamim.
In a statement, Buamim indicated that the Chamber was ready to facilitate a Guyana Trade Office in Dubai. He explained that that office would promote and expedite continuous investment and trade partnerships between the two countries.
Meanwhile, President Ali had spoken of creating a new logistics hub for the UAE in Guyana while on a tour of the Abu Dhabi Ports’ ultra-modern temperature-controlled vaccine storage warehouse facility, which is also the home of the Hope Consortium at Khalifa Industrial Zone (KIZAD) and the Khalifa Port. (G3)