Fifth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament
Mr Om Birla, Hon’ble Speaker of Lok Sabha (Lower House of Indian Parliament) met and interacted with Hon. Manzoor Nadir, Speaker of the National Assembly of Guyana at the Fifth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament held in Austria from 7 to 9 September 2021. Hon. Manzoor Nadir represented Guyana in the Conference along with a team of officials.
During the engagement, the two Speakers discussed the close ties between Guyana and India and Mr. Om Birla has stated that Guyana and India could explore the possibility of working together to strengthen their democracies. India’s relations with Guyana are warm and cordial with a high degree of understanding. The interaction is structured through periodic joint commissions, foreign office consultations, cultural exchange programmes and ITEC, among other things. With India being the world’s largest democracy and a model democracy, which has had 17 general elections and 300 assembly elections so far, Mr. Birla mentioned that India and Guyana could work together to strengthen their democracies. He also said that the people of the two nations could learn from each other, both culturally and economically.
India could contribute significantly to Guyana’s capacity building and skill development by training of more than 600 Government officials under ITEC Programme. India offers training assistance in Parliamentary Practices and Procedures, Capacity Development in Election Management, Electoral Technology and Voter Registration, Legislative Procedures, etc. India had also offered training programmes for Members of Parliament and Senior Officials of Guyana Parliament (National Assembly) through Parliamentary Internship Programme for Parliament Officials and International Programme in Legislative Drafting under ITEC Scholarship programme. India wishes Guyana to fully utilize the training slots offered under ITEC and venture into other areas of specialized training which India can provide for creating a pool of sufficiently skilled manpower in Guyana.
Hon. Nadir said that people from both countries could benefit economically and culturally once there is access to opportunities. He also spoke of the close relationship between Guyana and India, highlighting that India is one of Guyana’s largest donors.
Both Speakers pledged to continue to have dialogue on strengthening the institution of Parliament in the two countries with exchange programmes to learn from each other’s best practices and to maintain the strong bond shared over the years.
