Parag updates Guyanese diaspora in Qatar about progress back home

Minister of Local Government and Regional Development Sonia Parag recently met with the Guyanese diaspora in Qatar, providing a comprehensive overview of the massive and transformational developments taking place all across Guyana.
The Minister is currently in the Middle East attending the Earthna Summit, hosted by the Earthna Centre for a Sustainable Future – a component of the Qatar Foundation.
Minister Parag told Guyanese living in Qatar that the Dr. Irfaan Ali-led government has been quite strategic in balancing its push for progress with its responsibilities towards the environment and combating climate change.
“We want to ensure that we remain strong, even after oil is gone,” she said.
Minister Parag emphasised that Guyana’s oil wealth is being responsibly utilised to develop and diversify critical non-oil economies such as agriculture, tourism, and energy generation, etc.
“Ensuring food and energy security is a top priority for this People’s Progressive Party/Civic government,” Minister Parag said, pointing to the administration’s commitment to “striking that healthy balance.”
The Minister made specific mention of initiatives such as the landmark Gas-to-Shore project and the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project, which are part of an energy mix being pursued under the updated Low Carbon Development Strategy 2030.
This will see several smaller hydropower plants, along with wind and solar farms, set up to feed into the national grid, thereby providing reliable electricity at drastically reduced costs.
Minister Parag shared President Irfaan Ali’s vision of making Guyana a food and energy hub for the Caribbean region.
Minister Parag told the gathering that from ‘day-one’ the government has been investing heavily in education, delivering more than 30,000 scholarships to persons in all parts of the country.
“We also returned and increased the education cash grants,” Minister Parag noted.
The grant, which was stopped under the Coalition Government, was reinstated in 2020, and increased to $55,000.
Minister Parag also reflected on how government has been able to expand internet access to some of the most remote areas in the country, offering improved academic opportunities to hundreds of hinterland children. These efforts have also resulted in telemedicine being utilised to offer better medical care to hinterland residents.
Meanwhile, at the community level, Minister Parag said that all Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) are being equipped with excavators to address drainage and agricultural issues, with firefighting pickups to be able to respond and assist their communities as trained first responders, and soon enough, with mini-compactor garbage trucks which will ease the longstanding discomfort that stems from delayed garbage disposal.
Added to that, the NDCs will also receive substantial increases in their annual government subvention, which has gone from $5M to $30M.
Furthermore, Minister Parag informed the Guyanese living in Qatar that government subvention for municipalities has also grown from $10M to $50M.
“We want to empower our communities to serve the people,” Minister Parag said, pointing to the fact that every roadway and every community ground in the country is slated for repairs and rehabilitation.
“These are just some of what’s happening back home in Guyana,” Minister Parag told the gathering of enthused Guyanese who, by the end of the evening, committed to, at the very least, returning to their homeland more often.