Modernisation of Guyana’s social services, infrastructure discussed by Diaspora in Florida

With Guyana undergoing unprecedented development, the Guyanese Diaspora in Florida, United States, has underscored the need for the country to modernise its social services such as public healthcare, education and law enforcement as well as physical infrastructure.
These were some of the highlights of a recent oil and gas forum held in Miramar, Florida last week. The event was hosted by Guyanese American Chamber of Commerce (GACC) in collaboration with the Guyana Business Journal (GBJ) and the Caribbean Policy Consortium (CPC). It featured several key presentations on the Pathways to Guyana’s Future Prosperity in the Era of Oil and Gas.

According to an article published by the South Florida Caribbean News, the forum provided participants an opportunity to contribute their ideas about how best the financial resources derived from Guyana’s burgeoning oil and gas sector could be spent to improve the country and the lives of its people.
“Participants from the floor in their comments and questions pointed to the need for the country to have modern and efficient healthcare services, a professional Police Force to effectively fight rising crime and an overhaul of the education curriculum to make it more responsive the needs that drive economic transformation,” the article detailed.
Meanwhile, one of panellists at the forum, Guyanese Economist Joel Bhagwandin, also outlined during his presentations the need for Information Technology be utilised to digitise access to efficient public services thereby providing for easy and speedy access to pertinent documentation such as permits, passports and birth certificates – something which the participants supported.
However, the Dr Irfaan Ali-led Administration has long been talking about using the resources from the country’s petroleum sector to enhance its primary services along with the country’s physical landscape.
In fact, back in July, the Head of State announced a national healthcare initiative in collaboration with the Mount Sinai Health System and Stabroek Block partner, Hess Corporation, to improve the quality of and access to healthcare for the people of Guyana.
This initiative is a three-component plan that focuses on enhancing the country’s primary healthcare services, improving patient care and management at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC) and developing specialised services in cardiology and oncology with the private sector.
At the time, President Ali had pointed out that technology is critical to achieving these goals. Noting that Guyana is lagging far behind in the medical field, he posited that the country will have to find a shortcut to keep abreast or come up to par with what is happening around the world in the healthcare sector.
“We can’t go in a straight line, train the people then get the people and then investment. We have to cut short. So, we have to bring the technology in and we have to bring the human resource in at the same time – cut the distance to getting there and to do that, we need to get into the people with the experience, the know-how and with the technology,” the President had stated.
In fact, to bring healthcare workers on par with others in the Region, President Ali last week announced some $1.5 billion in salary increases for over 5000 healthcare workers in various fields.
Meanwhile, in the area of education, the Guyana Government has already begun working on modernising education delivery and setting up young children for the future.
Last week, Government launched Guyana and the Region’s first-ever coders initiative, which will see at least 150,000 youths across the country benefiting from skills training to equip them to join the more technologically advanced workforce being developed by the Government.
In his address, the Guyanese leader urged the hundreds of school children present to take up the opportunity being offered and assured them that the Government would continue to invest in them.
“This step is about you taking our country forward in 2030 and beyond, ensuring that you are competitive, resilient, functional… ensuring that we as a country have the tools that will take us forward, and our economy is among the strongest,” the Head of State added.
Speaking at the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (GCCI) Annual Awards Gala on Thursday last, the President spoke of the establishment of ICT hubs across the country, particularly in hinterland communities, and plans to build smart classrooms in every school throughout the country.
“We believe that all our children must have equitable access to education,” he asserted.
Moreover, he disclosed that already, some 1571 Guyanese have successfully completed programmes under the GOAL Scholarship initiative since its launch in 2020. (G8)