Carl Barrington Barrington Greenidge

Background

Greenidge, Carl Barrington was born on March 3, 1949 in New Amsterdam, Berbice, Guyana. Son of Cecil Cappel and Stella Leonie Ruperta (Hoppie) Greenidge.

Education

Bachelor of Arts with honors in Economics, University Exeter, United Kingdom, 1971. Master of Philosophy in Economics, University London, England, 1974.

Career

Research Assistant and Economics Tutor, Wye College, U. London, England, 1972-1974;

Lecturer in economics, U. Guyana, Georgetown, 1974-1978; Coordinator Graduate Programme in Economics & Head of Department of Economics (ag), 1977-1978

Chief Planning Officer, Secretary to the State Planning Board, State Planning Commission, Georgetown, 1978-1980;

Economic Adviser to President, Office of the President, Government Guyana, Georgetown, 1981;

Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Government Guyana, Georgetown, 1983-1985;

Minister of Finance, Government Guyana, Georgetown, 1983-1992;

Deputy Secretary General, Secretariat of African, Caribbean & Pacific Group States, Brussels, 1993+

Secretary General (ad interim), Secretariat of African, Caribbean & Pacific Group States, Brussels, 1995-2000;

Consultant Economist, Aubrey Barker Associates, Georgetown, 1975-1979. Research Fellow Institute Social and Economic Research, U. West Indies, Jamaica, 1987.

Co-president Council of Ministers European Cmty. & African, Caribbean and Pacific Group States, Brussels, 1989-1990. Member Inter Regional Network on Privatization, United Nations Development Project, New York, since 1991.

Member of Advisory Board Regulatory Policy Research Center/Institute, Hertford College, University of Oxford (England) 1993.

Vice chairman, European Center for Development Policy Management, 1995-2000,

Board Member, European Forum on International Cooperation, since 1997.

Director of the Technical, Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), Brussels, Belgium, 2000-2005

Adviser & subsequently Senior Director, Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM), 2005-2010

M.P., Guyana National Assembly , 2011-2015

Vice President & Minister of Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation of Guyana

Adviser on Borders and Guyana's Agent to the International Court of Justice

Achievements

• Main Achievements
  
  1. Served as Vice President of Guyana and acted as Prime Minister of the Republic and as the national President on several occasions.
  
  2. Co-President of the ACP EU Council of Ministers President of the ACP Group of States during whose term Presidential Summits were agreed and successfully launched.
  
  3. Headed two specialized Lome institutions in Belgium and the Netherlands, the ACP Secretariat and the CTA, which were repositioned to better meet current needs as regards international trade negotiations and the ICT revolution in particular. In addition, was Senior Director of the CRNM in Barbados. The latter was undoubtedly one of the most effective negotiating organs established in the 3rd World and in recognition of that was invited to assist and share experience with several of Africa’s regional bodies.
  
  
  
  4. Listed by Marquis Who’s Who as, ‘a noteworthy international public servant, economist’.
  
  5. Outstanding role as a negotiator in relation to labour (conditions and wages and salaries for the public sector in particular) was recognized at the national level by the Guyana TUC 1996 by way of a special award.
  
  6. Success in negotiations on behalf of:
  
  (i) the ACP Group of States and other bodies (until Dec. 2020 at which point was a member of the Troika which negotiated the ACP/EU Cotonou Successor Agreement and
  
  (ii) the Chief Negotiator of the Umbrella Caribbean Framework Agreement signed in 2023 with the EU, under which the region joined the Successor Agreement.
  
  (iii) Was similarly involved earlier in the negotiations of Lome 3, 4 and 4bis as well as annual sugar price and commodity Protocols over the years 1975-1996.
  
  (iv) At the national level negotiated on behalf of 5 former Opposition Parties the agreement , Cummingsburg Accord, under which the 2015-2012 Coalition Government was based, yielding only the 2nd coalition in over 60 years since independence.
  
  7. ERP with IMF/IRBD
  
  Succesfully negotiated, oversaw and managed the implementation of the Economic Recovery Programme (ERP), widely acknowledged to have restored Guyana’s international financial standing and heralded, until 2020, some seven years of unprecedented economic growth.
  
  This agreement was underpinned by a variety of ‘firsts’ or unique agreemnts such as:
  
  (i) Paris London Club debt agreements under which Guyana was the 1st state outside of Sub Sahara Africca to enjoy Venice and Toronto terms.
  
  (ii) Concluded Commercial Debt buy-back under IMF’s Accelerated Programme for the Highly Indebted States, successful implementation of which made Guyana HIPC-eligible.
  
  8. Guyana ICJ Agent and led the Guyana Team during the course of the Enhanced Mediation Negotiations, overseen by the UNSG and his personal representative, which secured the referral of the Guyana/Venezuela Paris (1899 Arbitral Award), Case to the International Court of Justice in 2018.
  
  9. WTO in 1996 - Led the ACP technical team which defended ACP and EU in the Latin America case challenging the ACP/EU Banana Protocol at the WTO and sought the WTO waiver for the Lome' Convention.
  
  10. ICC: Key witness providing testimony to the International Court of Arbitration International Chamber of Commerce Case against the Government of Guyana and its Agencies brought by Green Construction Co and won by the former. My role was specifically cited and commended in the final Arbitral Report.
  
  11. Science and Technology:
  
  (i) Member of the International Steering Committee on the Global Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD). A Leading author and Review Editor of the Report and the volumes on Science and Technology in Agriculture 2050. IBRD, FAO et al. 2009.
  
  (ii) Member of the European Union (EU) /African Caribbean and Pacific States (ACP) Informal Group on Science and Technology 2000-2005.
  
  (iii) Represented the IBRD Science Advisor, Prof Dr Robert Watson, at the New Delhi ISNAR Conference and delivered speech on the IAASTD to the Global Research Council, 25-27 May 2016.
  
  (iv) Resource Person for Commonwealth Partnership for Technology Management
  
  AVOCATIONS:
  
  (i) Youngest member of Brass Band to have performed at the Festival of Remembrance, Royal Albert Hall, London 1963.
  
  (ii) Member of Brass band that performed at the Royal Tournament, Earl’s Court in 1965
  
  (iii) Duke of Edinburgh’s Bronze and Silver Awards 1965/1966
  
  (iv) Proficiency Certificate in Gliding 1966
  
  (v) ATC and RAF Certificate in Rifle Shooting 1965
  
  

Works

More photos

• book

  • Empowering a Peasantry in a Caribbean Context: The Case of Land Settlement Schemes in Guyana, 1865-1985

    (Land has always been a political commodity, and nowhere h...)

Membership

Member International Institute of Public Finance, Agricultural Economics Society, American Economics Association.

Interests

• Avocations: gliding, cricket, squash, music.

Connections

Children: Kwesi, Coalla, Tara.

Father:

Cecil Cappel Greenidge

Mother:

Stella Leonie Ruperta (Hoppie) Greenidge

child:

Coalla Greenidge

child:

Kwesi Greenidge

child:

Tara Greenidge