India-funded ICT Centre for April opening

The India-funded US$1 million Centre of Excellence in Information Technology (IT), an advanced Information and Communications Technology (ICT) training school, is expected to be in operation by the end of next month, High Commissioner Venkatachalam Mahalingam has announced.
The Indian diplomat told reporters during a press conference on Thursday that the setting up of the institute is in its final stage.
“We are looking at that by April (month) end, the institute should be in operation,” he revealed.
High Commissioner Mahalingam further noted that Indian Public Sector Company Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) has been handling the establishment of the ICT Centre here.
“C-DAC is almost at the final stage of supplying the hardware and software – they’ve done 90 per cent of it. Now they’re at the final stage of bringing in one lead trainer, he will be the head of the institute, and two trainers,” he added.
According to the diplomat, the courses have also already been identified, and it is now left to the Guyana Government to identify the beneficiaries/students who will undertake the training.
A building in the University of Guyana’s Turkeyen Campus has been identified to house the Centre of Excellence in IT.
The Indian High Commissioner went on to say that the Indian Government is ready and willing to expand, with Guyana, bilateral relations which vastly cover, sectors such as agriculture, healthcare, pharmaceuticals and infrastructure.
However, Mahalingam noted that apart from the establishment of the Centre of Excellence in IT, there is additionally cooperation in not only the area of IT, but education development as a whole.
In fact, he disclosed that India recently hosted the Vice Chancellor of UG for an eight-day visit, during which he interacted with top universities in the country.
“So we could also look for opportunities to expand our cooperation in the area of education between India and Guyana,” the High Commissioner posited.
Back in April 2016, Guyana signed a US$1M Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian Government for the establishment of the centre, which will provide training for public sector ICT professionals, to ensure the availability of a highly skilled ICT workforce and also to equip persons with the requisite expertise to meet the increasingly complex demands of the public and private sectors.