(PRESS RELEASE) – Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh yesterday visited and inspected, on behalf of President Ali, the ongoing works on the racing track at the South Dakota Circuit.
Works are continuing under the auspices of the Guyana Motor Racing and Sports Club (GMR&SC) to upgrade the racing track, firstly to a level 3 on the Formula One Classification of racing tracks.
During the visit, the minister was given a tour of the new layout of the racing track.
The upgrade is part of government’s strategic partnership with the GMR&SC to upgrade the facility to international standards, to cater for a more advanced level of the sport. It is also part of government’s aim to boost Sport Tourism in Guyana.
While at South Dakota, Dr Singh explained that President Irfaan Ali’s vision for the country includes diversifying the productive sector of the country, including tourism and its various subsectors, such as Sports Tourism, so that visitors can have a full experience during their attendance at major and popular events in the country.
Minister Singh indicated that government is therefore expanding further from tourism packages previously offered and will now be offering visitors, in partnership with the various respective private sector entities, a more diversified experience when they come to the country.
“We want to take the tourism product to a completely different level and we want to offer a product that not only comprises world-class hotels on the coast – as you know we now have eight or nine internationally branded hotels that are under construction – but in particular, President Ali has spoken about event-based tourism, increasing the experiential diversity, so you can come not only to sight-see, not only to visit our beautiful forest, not only to do bird-watching and to see the beautiful species of flora and fauna that we have, but to enjoy event-based tourism and by this we have spoken of Sports events,” he added, as he detailed some of the other popular sporting events that government will be partnering with the private sector entities to boost and bring to international standards, such as Horse-Racing, Regatta, Football and Rodeo.
Dr Singh then alluded to the recently concluded Cricket Carnival which saw an entire calendar of activities taking place during the period and noted that it is a similar concept that the President has envisioned for all of the popular sports which attract large followings.
The Finance Minister noted that in addition to building a calendar of activities around major sporting events, Government also wants to do the same with National Religious festivals such as Diwali, Easter and Christmas.
“So that really is the vision of President Ali and we should not underestimate the economic impact of these events,“ the Finance Minister concluded.
Meanwhile, president of GMR&SC, Mahendra Raj, expressed his appreciation for Government’s support in completing the first phase of the track’s upgrade. It is expected that on October 26 some drivers will be able to test the level of the track in preparation for the country’s annual race meet at South Dakota in November.
The GMR&SC’s objective was to upgrade the track to first level 3 then later to a Grade 2 according to Formula One standards which would then result in South Dakota being the highest level race track in the entire Caribbean.
Earlier this month, upon the conclusion of Guyana’s recent successful hosting of Cricket Carnival, President Ali had said that government is working in the next few weeks to design an annual programme to position Guyana as a premier destination for entertainment and sports tourism in the Region.
