SCINTILLATING’: Amerindian dancers entertaining the large gathering on Tuesday afternoon at the official launch of Amerindian Heritage Month.

PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo has announced that $2 billion will be spent on developing road access in the hinterland, as Government continues to make investments for improving the lives of Amerindians.

He made the disclosure in his speech at the Tuesday ceremony to herald the beginning of Amerindian Heritage Month 2009 in the Amerindian Village at the National Exhibition Centre, Sophia, Georgetown.

The Head of State noted that, in many parts of the world, there is this view that indigenous people must become museum pieces and kept in “a historically intact state.”

But he said: “We can ensure that our indigenous people progress materially. They can dream big dreams for themselves and their children and yet, at the same time, we can create the conditions for the preservation of this wonderful culture.”

Mr. Jagdeo pledged that his administration will never impose on Amerindians any development model that is alien to Guyanese culture and said whatever is done to improve their livelihood would be done carefully and with their consent.

We respect the right of our Amerindian people to have choices. We have fought a very long time to give them choices and, today, Amerindian people can integrate in society and, at the same time, retain their cultural identity.

A section of the audience at the launch of Amerindian Heritage Month.

So, last year, when I spoke about the need to develop the village economy, it was out of recognition of some basic facts,” he recalled.

President Jagdeo said serious efforts have been made, since the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) assumed office, to better life in the hinterland with the budgets for Regions One (Barima/Waini), Seven (Cuyuni/Mazaruni), Eight (Potaro/Siparuni), Nine (Upper Takutu/Essequibo) and Ten (Upper Demerara/Berbice) where most of the indigenous people live, having all grown phenomenally much more, as compared to the other regions.

But he admitted: “We have failed to dramatically improve income in these communities because of a few things and one major hurdle we have is the distance from the coast and logistics.”

President Jagdeo said each village must have food security and an activity or a couple of activities that are sustainable and can earn income all year round and provide opportunities for young people.

He said the pilot programme has started in 15 communities but that is not the end of it.

President Jagdeo revealed that, over the next two years, tens of millions of dollars will be spent on those communities, based on what the people in the villages think are sustainable and technical help.

NECESSITY

Prime Minister Sam Hinds and other PPP/C Members of Parliament at the launch.

He said, recognising the need to reduce cost of living in the hinterland, which is much higher than many parts of the coast, because of the necessity to fly things to those parts, the expenditure will see several roads being developed there.

So upgrading the road network in Regions One, Ten and in the southern part of Nine, going beyond Lethem and connecting Region Eight to Region Nine could all be very instrumental in not only shipping things out but reducing the impact on people,” President Jagdeo posited.

In additionally, he said: “We recognise that the time has come for these villages to have some form of electricity.”

President Jagdeo said the Government has embarked on a pilot project and close to 1,000 small solar units have already been distributed and, within four years, every household, among the 10,000 Amerindian households, will have one.

We are also working and we may have to, at some point in time, subsidise this, but, hopefully, Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) will expand its services to bring not just voice but data access to at least central points in some of these communities, so that they can also plug into the future information communication technology revolution.

I think that will take place in this country once we bring in new fibre optic cables and we reduce the cost of bandwidth,” he forecast.

According to him, “We all owe it to the people who live in these areas. For too long, the Amerindians have been left out of development.”

The Head of State said, over the past several years, the PPP/C Government has approached this with renewed commitment.

This is part of our pledge to these communities that we are going to work every single day to ensure that a child born in one of these areas has the same opportunity as a child born on the coast.

I see national well-being as very important for us to deliver on all of these things. We have to keep growing our economy, we have to keep solving many of the problems that we face at the national level, having a vision for the future, getting our productive sector to be much more competitive globally,” he remarked.