India’s ITEC programme: Pres Ali urges regional leaders to seize missed training opportunities

President Dr Irfaan Ali has sharply criticized regional leaders for failing to capitalize on the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) Programme, describing it as a missed opportunity to build capacity across the Caribbean.
He urged police commissioners to take immediate action to utilize the available opportunities within the Programme.

During Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Guyana last year for the 2nd India-CARICOM Summit in Georgetown, an appeal was made to Caribbean nations to capitalize on the opportunities offered by the ITEC Programme however no significant actions were taken by regional countries.
The Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme, ITEC for short, is the leading capacity-building platform of the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India. Instituted in 1964, ITEC is one of the oldest institutionalized arrangements for international capacity building, having trained more than 200,000 officials from over 160 countries in both civilian and defense sectors.
President Ali expressed his disappointment, stating, “I would say I’m very disappointed in the region, and I’ll tell you why. When Prime Minister Modi was here, he emphasized that there are thousands of training opportunities under the ITEC programme in India. In the last four years, hundreds of our officers have benefited from training in the ITEC programme in the most sophisticated fields at every level. I found out that they have not received any or very few applications from the region for training under the ITEC programme.”
He challenged regional commissioners to examine the ITEC Programme and make full use of it, encouraging the region to take advantage of the opportunities it presents.
He also stated that he would take it upon himself to personally follow up on all applications submitted.
“You have thousands of training opportunities that you can select from under the ITEC programme, free of cost, that are available, and we’re not making use of it. So, I would challenge the commissioners here to have a look at the ITEC programme. I’ll have the Commissioner of Police in Guyana have the entire listing, and to identify areas that you can benefit from under the ITEC programme, and have this year, and I can champion this for you, get the application in, and I’m telling you, I will take a personal interest in ensuring I follow up on all the applications that are coming from the region under the ITEC programme, because the opportunities are there. Tremendous opportunities for training.”
According to the Head of State, Guyana already has the certification, and considerations are being made regarding a regional academy to support personnel training. “We already have the certification, so we want a discussion around this. How do we deploy this regional academy to support your training? But outside of that, we have just launched the National Defense Institute, and the National Defense Institute is operating at high-level master’s programs, post-graduate programs. It’s integrated with other international defense and training institutes globally.”
He also expressed a desire to present to the commissioners the opportunities that the programme offers, which span across specific needs such as cybercrime. He referenced how Guyana’s National Defense Institute conducted a specific program on cybercrime for CEOs, so they can understand its importance and the necessity of investment.
In 2024, a group of 30 individuals from law enforcement agencies and various social service organizations in Guyana visited India for a special course under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) Programme.