Guyanese business owners and frequent travellers will have the option to choose a 46-page machine-readable passport, at a cost of $10,000 as against the country’s current 32-page passport.
Monday, during his Budget 2019 presentation in the National Assembly Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan announced the new introduction.
The minister explained that the new passport will reduce both the cost and the time spent to renew the document once it has expired.
“[With] the introduction of a 46-page, machine-readable passport, business persons and other frequent travellers would find this new passport both attractive and convenient. It is priced at $10,000. The 32-page passport remains available at the current price of $6,000,” Minister Jordan said.
The Department of Public Information (DPI) spoke to persons at the Central Immigration Passport Office, about this new measure.
Collin Chung, a Venezuelan by birth with Guyanese parentage, said as a frequent traveller this new introduction is quite convenient for those, who are too busy to undergo such processes and should be embraced.
“I think the 46-pages passport would be beneficial because we are entering industrialisation through our exploitation of petroleum in the country, so it would open a lot of doors and break down barriers to expand on tourism within the country.”
Expressing her view, Gloria Giddings said that though she is simply visiting the country, she can appreciate how the new measure will benefit the regular air traveller. “This new introduction is beneficial to those who are frequent travellers especially business owners… it would beneficial for them… they would be paying less. Despite it costing a bit more, they will benefit because there are more pages, more time given, so it is definitely a plus for them.”
An elated Dennis Garraway said that he is, “so happy that we (Guyana) got that materialised… I know that this would be a great boost for someone like me who travels a lot due to my religious obligations and those who frequently travel, so this would be a great boost.”
Guyana’s passport has, recently, increased in value shown on the Henly and Partners Passport Index 2018. The index shows that Guyanese can now travel to 88 countries visa-free/visa-on-arrival, moving the country up four places on the index’s rankings, to 55 in the world. According to the 2017 index, Guyana’s passport allowed Guyanese to travel to 81 countries without requiring a visa or with a visa granted on arrival.
Neola Damon.
Images by Jules Gibson.