Guyana, China unveil logo in celebration of 50th anniversary

On Sunday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall, Guyana and China hosted a Friendship Table Tennis tournament to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Guyana and The People’s Republic of China establishing diplomatic relations, and unveiled an anniversary logo. Present at the tournament were Foreign Secretary of Guyana, Robert Persaud and Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Guyana, Guo Haiyan, who shared insights into the diplomatic relations between the two nations.

In the feature address, Foreign Secretary Persaud said, “Guyana and China, we have very strong historical ties, as reference to Chinese making up one segment of our population. More importantly, the People’s Republic of China have always enjoyed discussing relationship, having established international relations in June 27, 1972. From then, we’ve seen our relationship grow economically, politically and we’ve seen very clear attempts to bring our people together.”

Persaud noted that regardless of which government was in office, there has always been a unified view of the China policy as it relates to working to forge better bilateral relations, and greater ties to bring the people together. He explained that Guyana cherished the relationship it had with China and for that reason, the two countries were seeking ways to build their relationship going forward.

“Sports is also a part of bringing people together, so while we are here and symbolically kicking off the event, we will also look at other areas. I know we will be collaborating to develop more recreational facilities, enhancing some of the existing facilities that we have with the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport. We are very grateful for the support we have received; it is not about kicking off a table tennis tournament but reminding us that sports (in particular) diplomacy as it relates to the People’s Republic of China,” Persaud posited.

Ambassador Guo, in her remarks, stated that she was honoured to join Foreign Secretary Persaud to unveil the logo of the people’s anniversary of China and Guyana. She explained that 50 years ago, Guyana established diplomatic relations with China, so since then Guyana has been an important partner of China. “Fifty years is an important milestone, during the last half-century Guyana and China have shared things such as mutual respect, mutual trust, and mutual support and mutually-beneficial cooperation. We look forward to even more fruitful cooperation in all fields to achieve common development,” she said.
After the unveiling ceremony, an extraordinary exhibition match was played by Guyana’s national team champions. Then, after their introduction by Godfrey Munroe, President of GTTA; Chen Xilai, Deputy Chief of the Embassy; Manzoor Nadir, Speaker of the National Assembly; and Ishaka Jackman, IT and Media Specialist Player of GTTA, led Teams Red, Yellow, and Blue respectively in a team competition. It took 13 matches to finally decide the winner. Team Blue in the end won, and Team Yellow and Team Red took the second and third place respectively.