–250 small businesses to receive grants, $600M to dredge mouth of Pomeroon River, VP Jagdeo announces

VICE-PRESIDENT, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, on Tuesday, announced that the government will make available some 800 temporary jobs to residents of Region Two to supplement the income of those “feeling the squeeze” of the increase in cost of living stimulated by external factors beyond Guyana’s control.

Region Two is primarily an agriculture-based region and the government is actively looking at ways and means to increase employment in the region, the Vice-President told a receptive gathering that included farmers and GOAL Scholarship awardees at the Anna Regina Multilateral School.

The jobs, he said, will be soon advertised. It will not cater for more than one person per family, he said and will include work at government offices and institutions.

This aside, he also related that the government will be allocating some 250 grants for small business to persons in the region with viable business proposals.

In addition to those initiatives and in keeping with its vision to create more jobs in the region, the government is looking to co-invest with businesses and companies, particularly for the establishment of call centres in the region.

Jagdeo told the gathering at the Anna Regina Multilateral School that the government is willing to invest in setting up the shell or building of those businesses and help in other ways feasible to get them into operation so that they will generate employment for the people of Region Two.

The government is aiming to employ some 1,000 Region Two residents through the establishment of call centres there. This year, it has allocated some $1 billion in the national budget for road projects in the region; this will also create hundreds of jobs for Region Two residents.

A US$30 million state-of-the-art hospital will also be built at Anna Regina this year, which the Vice-President said, will reduce the need for residents of Region Two to travel to Georgetown for critical medical treatment.

And these are not all of the major infrastructural works that will be executed in the region this year. Jagdeo told residents that two water treatment systems will be built in the region, a solar energy project will come on board to enable stable power supply in the region as well as the dredging of the mouth of the Pomeroon River. The latter project is expected to significantly reduce flooding in the Pomeroon.

Those projects will improve services to residents, enhance the landscape of the region and will provide jobs for hundreds, many of whom are currently dealing with increase in prices for basic commodities as well as fuel and fertilisers.

SPIKE IN PRICES
The spike in prices for food, fuel and other commodities are due to a slowdown in the global supply chain as a result of COVID-19 and the current war between Russia and Ukraine.

Due to COVID-19, many large companies closed or shrunk their operations, resulting in a shortfall in production, which has created a demand glut and uncertainty in the global market. And these coupled with transportation costs, have driven prices up for even basic commodities.

This situation, Dr. Jagdeo told the rice farmers, GOAL Scholarship awardees and others gathered at the Anna Regina Multilateral Secondary, has been exacerbated by the current war between Russia and the Ukraine, both major global supplies of wheat and Russia, a major supplier of oil and gas.

The US, UK and the European Union have all implemented sanctions on Russia, targeting Russia’s economy by weakening its ability to trade with other nations, but those also resulted in upward spiral in prices for oil and gas.

POOR ECONOMIC POLICIES
This situation, Jagdeo said, has placed an additional strain on Guyana, which, for five years, was put on the back foot by “poor and spiteful” economic policies implemented by the former A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) government, which saw thousands of Guyanese, from public servants to farmers, put on the bread line.

It is estimated that some 30,000 workers lost their jobs under the APNU+AFC government and about 40,000 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 800 temporary jobs for Region Two residents, Jagdeo noted, is just one in a series of measures that the Dr. Irfaan Ali-led government has implemented to support Guyanese in need of help, since assuming office two years ago.

The others include the restoration of the Education Cash Grant which was scrapped by the former APNU+AFC government. Aside from restoring the grant, Jagdeo reiterated that his government has increased it to $25,000 and will further increase it to $50,000 before the end of their first term.

Some $250,000 has been given to sugar workers who lost their jobs when the APNU+AFC government closed the sugar estates; old age pension has increased by 40 per cent; the sum for school uniform vouchers has been progressively increasing; excise tax on fuel has been reduced to 10 and scores of burdensome taxes implemented by the former government have been removed.

The Vice-President was accompanied by Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand; Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Nigel Dharamlall; Minister within the Ministry of Housing and Water, Susan Rodrigues and other officials.