ATTORNEY General and Legal Affairs Minister Basil Williams has reminded Berbicians that the Government is steadfastly committed to fulfilling the promise of a good life it made to them.

Williams was at the time speaking at Limlair Village, Corentyne, while on an outreach to listen to and address concerns of residents in the Ancient County.

Also on the outreach were Minister within the Ministry of Natural
Resources, Simona Bromes, who addressed residents at Fyrish Village; Minister of Citizenship Winton Felix, who addressed Kildonan residents; Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan, who addressed residents at Eversham Village; and Minister of State Joseph Harmon, who addressed residents at Number 53 Village.

Attorney General Williams said with the discovery of the largest oil reserves in the Western hemisphere in Guyana, the “projection of the good life is real,” but Guyana will not be dependent on oil alone.

He said other sectors will be enhanced, especially the agriculture sector.

Minister Williams also related that ExxonMobil is discovering more wells and production of oil is expected to begin before 2020.

The Government, he said, has been receiving a lot of help from regional and international partners to ensure the oil wealth is properly managed.

“To avoid the pitfalls of other countries who were surprised with the oil wealth and didn’t know what to do with it, we are being prepared to receive this wealth. All our international partners are assisting, the ABC countries, our neighbours and all around the world we are getting assistance and we don’t want when we receive this wealth we don’t want the Dutch Disease that has inflicted Trinidad and most other oil countries, that all our resources move into the oil industry
and abandon agriculture and abandon other sectors and when the prices fall we are caught without our own food.”

Addressing development in the region, Williams said huge sums have been poured into agriculture, education, infrastructure and other sectors to enhance the livelihoods of residents.

And on that note, he urged the residents to monitor Government projects so as to ensure full accountability and to avoid complacency.

He also noted that the Government has been able to put a big dent in crime and piracy of the high seas, in the region.