CULTIVATING a national resource centre to fuel innovation and science and technology, through heavy investment in research and development and fostering a national tech start-up ecosystem, would go a far way in preparing Guyana to tackle the futuristic opportunities that a 21st century world opens up. This century is shaping up to be one that engineers the global technological society, and it therefore becomes of utmost importance to focus on developing a national corridor for innovation to flourish.
The big global tech firms grew out of a deliberate policy in the United States to cultivate Silicon Valley, an area dedicated to fostering a tech start-up culture and a founders’ environment. Out of this space came Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, eBay, PayPal, and all the major trail blazers of human progress over the last 25 years. Guyana would do well to take a leaf out of the Silicon Valley experience to design a corridor where state incentives fuel a start-up ecosystem, an innovative environment, and a national founders’ space. Such a corridor could have hubs throughout the country, maybe one in every town.

Today, with knowledge and world-class training programmes ubiquitous through the Internet, much of it free and easy to access, young people in Lethem and Aishalton, Anna Regina, Parika and Charity, New Amsterdam and Corriverton, Grove and Diamond, Lusignan, Buxton, Rosehall, Rosignol, and Orealla, citizens everywhere could readily access training on their own time and in their own homes on how to do computer programming, website development or app design.
It is a brave new world, and Guyanese already possess that well-known penchant for innovative solutions and tackling a challenge with gusto. Bringing this inherent Guyanese talent for beating any odds, to the task of rolling out a national innovation and tech start-up culture gives the nation a winning jump start.
Countries around the world are following the Silicon Valley model to roll out strong, innovation hubs and corridors. India, Israel, and Indonesia all have thriving innovation corridors. Canada is one of the global leaders in fostering a sturdy innovation culture, and Toronto and Vancouver are cities that hum with the vibrant aliveness of tech start-ups launching out in droves, dreaming of global conquest. In Ontario, the Centre of Excellence, and start-up innovation hubs in cities across the Province, provide seminars, conferences, workshops, and training in how to brainstorm tech start-up ideas, how to develop a tech company, and how to finance scaling. A robust, angel investor culture provides ready financing for enterprises that show promise.

Guyana would do well to import the Canadian experience, to implement the success model of Silicon Valley, and even adopt the methodology of India, Israel and Indonesia in how they foster an innovation culture. At some point, the Guyana government would do well to operate a Ministry of Innovation and Science and Technology, as this is the future of the global village.
The biggest driver of socioeconomic progress today in the world is the tech start-up scene, launching stunning global enterprises that solve age-old human problems, and ushering in a new future for humanity. The world today is fascinated with Tesla and SpaceX, LinkedIn, and the thousands and thousands of companies that dominate the world landscape. These firms not only operate as economic units and businesses, but they also solve some crucial problems the world could not even think of tackling before 21st century technology developed. These firms are solving extreme poverty, extending longevity and lifespan, improving healthcare by leaps and bounds, and enriching lives worldwide.
Guyana cannot afford to focus only on traditional economic engines. The state must develop incentives to foster a national culture that fuel tech start-ups, innovation, and research and development.

Just as how the Institute of Private Enterprise Development (IPED) developed after 1992 to provide a funding platform for small businesses, manufacturers and enterprises in the agro-processing and farming space, today such incentives geared towards the tech start-up ecosystem would go a far way to develop an arm of the development process that has been proven worldwide to be the biggest driver of economic goodwill. The University of Guyana, which operates a rudimentary Computer Science department, may do well to partner with global institutions to bring in experts from around the world to boost its offering to local Guyanese, and in fact, even Guyanese in the diaspora who may want to tap into the Guyana start-up scene would be able to benefit, and also contribute skills. The Institute of Applied Science and Technology could ramp up its status as a strong national organisation, with hubs in communities across the country utilising maybe community centres or school buildings in the evenings, to provide support, mentorship, coaching, and a ready ecosystem for tech citizens to tap into. Blueprints for such things exist around the world and could easily be applied to the Guyana situation.

For example, the DMZ is a tech start-up hub at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada, where university students team up with experts in the tech sector to brainstorm ideas, develop enterprises and scale to global success, and this model could be adopted in Guyana.  Although one might expect the state to play the main role of rolling out the Guyana innovation corridor, the private sector would do well to jump start the process. Were a visionary leader to step forward and develop the idea of a Guyana tech scene, it would do the society a lot of good.
Guyanese are by nature an enterprising people, and proved over the years their skill in developing innovative solutions to deal with adverse situations. This is the essence, the soul, and the kind of character that makes for a successful tech start-up society. Guyana could lead the Caribbean in such a vision, providing the platform for people from throughout the Region to launch global tech enterprises. A national Guyana tech start-up ecosystem would go a long way to bring swifter solutions to challenging issues that arise in every area of national development. Applying innovation and technology to the sugar industry, for example, would open up a whole new paradigm to the task of ensuring sugar remains an embedded socioeconomic tool of Guyana. Technology and innovation are the future, the new world now unfolding with rapid urgency.