…procurement entities award 24 multi-million dollar contracts

AS part of its programme to help stimulate the economy, government will be spending close to one billion dollars to construct and upgrade community roads in three regions, Cabinet Secretary and Minister of State Joseph Harmon announced on Thursday.
Speaking to reporters at his weekly post-Cabinet media briefing, Harmon, who is also Minister of State, said Cabinet noted at its meeting on Tuesday the award of 24 contracts valued $749,583,929 by the procurement entities and the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) in the area of infrastructural development.
The contracts are for projects in Essequibo Islands-West Demerara (Region Three), Demerara-Mahaica (Region Four) and Upper Demerara –Upper Berbice (Region 10) and are part of the Government’s ongoing programme to construct and/or rehabilitate urban and miscellaneous roads in all communities countrywide.
Late last month, government announced that it will be investing $5 Billion in the housing sector for the delivery and construction of 758 housing units in Regions Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven and 10 in a bid to boost the economy. Harmon had made the disclosure during a post-Cabinet press briefing at the Ministry of the Presidency. He had said then that Government was taking every step to ensure economic activities are revitalised and that money continues to flow into the economy.
Responding to questions on reports of the country in an economic slow-down, and talks by some sections of the business community of laying off workers, Harmon said these reports are taken very seriously by Cabinet. He explained that due to these reports, President David Granger has at least on three occasions recently summoned some of the key sector ministers including finance, agriculture and business to look at options on how to address the slow-down. Harmon said in responding to the slow-down, the Government is moving to “pump huge sums of money into the economy” that would generate employment and economic activities. The money for construction of these units is projected to have a ripple effect across the economy. It is expected to create employment opportunities for thousands and increase the demand for construction materials.
“The economy is always on the forefront of our considerations — not only in the Cabinet– but in all of our Government undertakings. The impact that the economy has on the people of this country is something which we are very careful about dealing with,” Harmon had said.
He pointed out that the economic slow-down in the country has to be taken in conjunction with the economic reality of neighbouring countries such as Suriname, Brazil, Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago which are in deep recession, due to falling oil prices and other economic crises. “These economic [realities] are not strange, people are reading, they are on the Internet and they understand what is going on internationally,” he said, adding: “We are doing our best to ensure that we do not have to go down the road, where some of these countries have gone.”
Also back in March Harmon had said that government was banking on its major investments in the housing sector and other areas to spur economic growth. He had said that in 2016, there was not enough implementation of government’s public sector infrastructure programme; however, this year it is expected to be different. “This year as you can see, the contracts have started to reel off. We are better organised now and therefore all of the contracts which have been placed in this budget…we’re going to use that to ensure that the economy is basically better positioned,” Harmon told the media.
He said too that government will be encouraging private investments and re-committed to strengthening cooperation with the private sector. “We encourage private sector involvement in the economy. We are going to engage the private sector in a more meaningful and aggressive way so that this partnership between government and private sector can be used, that energy, that synergy which the two parties bring together, can be used to basically boost and move this country forward,” Minister Harmon said. In late 2016, Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan, presented the country’s biggest budget of GYD$250 billion under the theme: “Building a diversified green economy: delivering the good life to all Guyanese.” A number of measures were announced to stimulate the country’s economy and to create employment opportunities.