–as Cabinet approves a number of short overseas courses

A NUMBER of government officials will be sent overseas in October and November to attend various programmes.
Minister of State Joseph Harmon made the disclosure on Friday during his weekly post-Cabinet press briefing at the Ministry of the Presidency.
Minister Harmon told reporters that Cabinet on Tuesday granted approval for Acting Commissioner of Police, David Ramnarine to attend a CariSECURE exchange programme in Montreal, Canada from November 14 to 15.

CariSECURE is a project organised and funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OCES) to develop a Crime Information Management System (CIMS).
With Guyana, St. Kitts and Nevis and St. Lucia its pilot countries, the course will expose participants to global best practices and innovations in the automation of crime data collection and analysis, as well as afford them the opportunity to observe how data translates into evidence-based policy.
The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), on the other hand, will be represented at a Caribbean Customs Law Enforcement Liaison Officers Meeting in Miami, Florida from November 1 to 2.

That seminar will discuss common threats and current trends in the Caribbean, review Caribbean custom law enforcement practices, and plan joint future operational work.
Cabinet also approved Guyana’s participation in the 13th Annual Inter-American Network on Government Procurement (INGP) conference.
That conference was convened by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and held from October 3-5 in Santiago, Chile.
It’s primary focus was on value for money in public procurement, including methods on tools used to achieve value for money, digital economy, the use of technology, and challenges implementing value for money in procurement.
Christine Singh, Procurement Officer at the National Procurement and Tender Administration (NPTA) attended the conference on behalf of Guyana.
Minister Harmon noted, too, that Guyana will be participating in the 10th UNESCO Youth Forum, which will be held at UNESCO’S Headquarters in Paris, France from October 25-26.
The forum will be convened under the theme, “Rethinking Youth Engagement with UNESCO”, and seek to foster long-term and meaningful engagements between youth and UNESCO’s operational strategy on youths 2014-2021.

UNESCO has also organised an orientation and capacity-building workshop on the education sector’s responses to school gender-based violence in the Caribbean region. Guidance Counsellor attached to the Ministry of Education, Vikram Mohabeer, is expected to participate in the workshop to be held in St. Lucia from October 16 to 18.
Approval was also granted for a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to participate in the 2017 seminar on Chinese language and culture for South-South cooperation for developing countries scheduled to be held in Beijing, China.
The seminar will focus on a range of issues relating to China’s relationship with developing countries, including its open door policy, inter-cultural communication, Chinese culture.