New Chinese Ambassador looking to build on friendly relations with Guyana

The benefits that Guyana would have accrued in the fields of infrastructure, economic and technical assistance, human resource development, and investment through its longstanding relationship with the People’s Republic of China are to continue under new Chinese Ambassador to Guyana, Zhang Limin.
He presented his letters of credence to President Donald Ramotar on Monday, and vowed to continue the “time-honoured” friendship which the two countries have been sharing over the last four decades.
“During my tenure in office on this post, I will exhort my efforts to further develop the friendly relations and cooperation between China and Guyana and the friendship between our two peoples,” Ambassador Limin assured President Ramotar, according to the Government Information Agency (GINA).
Guyana was the first country in Caricom to establish diplomatic ties with China, but links between the two nations that date back to 1853 when Chinese immigrants arrived in Guyana to work as indentured servants. Guyana and China celebrated 40 years of diplomatic relations on June 27. The countries share a fruitful relationship.
Within recent years, China has emerged as one of Guyana’s main non-traditional export markets, along with India and Brazil; locals export approximately 34 products to China on a yearly basis.
Guyana recently received two new roll-on/ roll-off ferry vessels and benefitted from military air corps pilot and engineer training from China.
Laptops for Guyana’s One Laptop Per Family (OLPF) programme were supplied by the Chinese owned Haier Electrical Appliance Limited and more recently, the Great Wall Computer Shenzhen Company Limited.
In health, the Chinese roving medical missions have been visiting Guyana over the last 20 years to supplement health care services.
The construction of the Guyana International Conference Centre (GICC) and a modern sugar factory at Skeldon are also tangible products of the Guyana-China partnership.
The two countries have over the years benefitted from people to people contact, especially with the plethora of Chinese businesses.
In June, Secretary to the Communist Party of China (CPC) Tianjin Municipal Committee Zhang Gaoli visited Guyana with hopes of building linkages.
President Ramotar conveyed to the new Chinese Ambassador the Guyana government’s desire to see China’s partnerships with the Caribbean and Latin America strengthened.