Tue, Nov 6, 2012

The Governments of St Vincent and the Grenadines and Argentina signed a technical and economic cooperation agreement on October 26 in Kingstown.{{more}}

Minister of Foreign Affairs Senator Douglas Slater signed on behalf of SVG, with Ambassador Marcelo Salviolo signing on behalf of Argentina.

The signing signalled a bilateral arrangement and technical cooperation agreement between the governments.

It is proposed that there will be cooperation in education, where there will be scholarships and training in various areas.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Nathaniel Williams, in his remarks, gave a historical background of the relationship between SVG and Argentina.

The ties began in the 1970s with the signing of a communiqué and were strengthened in 2003 with the signing of diplomatic arrangements both at the official and diplomatic levels.

Williams said bilateral relations were further extended to ordinary citizens of both states.

He said the relationship is growing stronger as both countries seek to benefit their people.

The permanent secretary pointed out that SVG has benefitted from its relationship with Argentina in education, agriculture and other areas of technical cooperation.

He said the signing would further concretize the relationship and that he hoped the ties would be further strengthened with the honorary council’s office.

Meanwhile, Slater said SVG has not exploited all the opportunities that may have existed historically to engage its neighbours.

He said the Government over the past decade has recognized that this is important.

Slater said the signing between the Governments of SVG and Argentina is a further development of these efforts.

He said the Government hopes to strengthen this agreement and that it will be expanded to areas such as culture, information technology, maritime, and airport development.

Slater said SVG’s delegation at the last summit of the Americas had a very engaging meeting with the president of Argentina and many of these issues were discussed.

Slater said education is one of the major priorities of the government and they expect to be getting concrete proposals from the Ministry of Education as it relates to this new arrangement.

He encouraged Vincentians to take up the scholarships offered by Argentina and also urged citizens to learn the working languages in the region.

He noted that SVG has many multi-lateral relations with Latin American countries and in order to communicate with them Vincentians must be able to speak their language.

He said the signing of the agreement would go a long way towards this end.

Meanwhile, Ambassador Salviolo said Argentina has worked with SVG on other matters of technical cooperation, including the signing of the framework to set up new proposals and to continue working in mutual benefit.

He said Gonsalves said in Parliament that SVG will continue to strengthen its relationship with Argentina and that this statement is real, noting that Vincentians are travelling to Argentina, participating in seminars for training, capacity building, education and agriculture.

Several senior public servants from various ministries witnessed the signing ceremony. (A. Sam — API)