On day two of its visit to the National Assembly, the delegation of the Parliament of Guinea-Bissau met with the members of the Committee on Health and the Family and the Committee on the Rights of the Child, as well as the members of the Committee on the Economy, Regional Development, Trade, Tourism and Energy and the Committee on Finance, State Budget and Control of Public Spending.
Nada Lazic, Deputy Chairperson of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, said that the National Assembly pays close attention to the position and rights of children in Serbia, as evidenced by the very composition of the Committee which is headed by the National Assembly Speaker herself. She informed the guests about the Committee’s scope of activity, adopted laws and ratified conventions protecting children’s rights. She stressed that the Committee is especially mindful of the particularly vulnerable category of children who live and work on the streets.
Dr Ljubica Mrdakovic Todorovic, Deputy Chairperson of the Committee on Health and the Family, briefed the parliamentary delegation on the Committee’s mode of operation and scope of activities, as well as the recently adopted laws in the field.
The Chair of the Permanent Specialized Committee for Women and Children Sola N'Quilin Nabitchita presented the Committee’s work, stressing that the rights of children migrants crossing the Atlantic are especially jeopardized, which is a problem that demands an international response.
In the meeting with the representatives of the Committee on the Economy, Regional Development, Trade, Tourism and Energy and the Committee on Finance, State Budget and Control of Public Spending the officials agreed that cooperation between the two countries is essential for the improvement of parliamentary relations. They focused on cooperation in the sphere of tourism, agriculture and agribusiness because Guinea-Bissau is mainly an agricultural country and one lacking the technical capabilities to strengthen its production and processing industry.
Snezana B. Petrovic, Chairperson of the Committee on the Economy, Regional Development, Trade, Tourism and Energy, said that Serbia can help Guinea-Bissau both by sharing its experiences and experts in the field, especially the production of agricultural mechanisation which can be used in Guinea-Bissau. She said that all the relevant Serbian ministries will be informed about these meetings and, she hopes, that would lead to operative cooperation and result in bilateral agreements. She said that EU accession, good relations with China, the Russian Federation and the US, as well as the Non-Aligned Movement member states, as evidenced by the abolition of visas for the citizens of Guinea-Bissau, are Serbia’s chief foreign policy goals.
Finally, the officials concluded that there is room to advance cooperation especially in the fields of trade, agriculture, tourism and investment, and, with its many free trade agreements, Serbia can be the gateway for the placement of Guinea-Bissau’s products onto third markets.
