President Ali says on Guyana’s expansion

TAKING the bull by the horn, President, Dr. Irfaan Ali, has said that he was done talking and Guyana’s metamorphosis will be seen through the implementations and initiatives that his government were putting forth.

While delivering his feature address at the Canada-Guyana Chamber of Commerce Maple Leaf Ball and Awards Presentation last Friday, the President spoke on Guyana’s bright future that lies ahead and the captaincy it will have in the areas of food, energy, and climate security.

“It will be the country that will lead the role on climate security, it will be the country that will be around every single leadership table on energy security and it is a country that will be in the leadership positon in this region on food security and the next seven years will be spent to position this country exactly there,” Dr. Ali said.
In a passionate speech about the plans to bring forth a vibrant and sustainable economy, the President said that heavy investments will be poured into the traditional sectors, such as health and education, to make success possible.

Ranging from the service industry to the tourism sector, the Head of State proclaimed his undying commitment to ensuring that Guyana sees new heights.
Dr. Ali firmly asserted: “We done talking. We’re going to do it…”

RE-ENGINEERING FOOD PRODUCTION SYSTEM

During a discussion, last week, with the directors of the Inter-American Institute for Agricultural Cooperation (IICA), including Director General Manuel Otero, President Ali spoke on how his administration was working assiduously to position Guyana’s agricultural sector along with the food production system into a business market for citizens
Speaking on the progress Guyana is making when it comes to reducing its food import bill, the President said: “We have set ourselves a goal of reducing the food import bill in CARICOM by 25 per cent by 2025,” adding that this goal must be coupled with critical policies, budgetary allocations, among other necessities.
Dr. Ali also stated: “Agriculture is not just the production of food. For us, agriculture is a business; it must be able to be competitive, it must be able to earn, it must be able to be profitable [and] it must be able to generate proposals that are bankable and make sense for the private sector.

It must be attractive to women [and] young people; it must be a science that is ongoing and that is what we are trying to do in Guyana.”
Regarding women playing a vital role in the agricultural sector’s development, the Guyanese Head of State said his government was already rolling out initiatives to ensure that both women and young people are involved.

“We have already launched a programme in Guyana where we said we want 35 per cent of all the new farms to be owned by women and young people and we are already on target with this,” he related while expounding on the vast number of opportunities in Guyana for these groups.

Striving to re-engineer the entire food production system, the President said: “… Only this morning we discussed with IICA, a partnership that will see us working on the creation of a regional food hub, digitisation and communication strategy to ensure that all the partners are involved…”
He further stated that there were discussions with the IICA about establishing institutions that will aid in accomplishing this. For instance, converting Guyana’s School of Agriculture into a regional one, that carries the IICA brand.

Moreover, while acknowledging the gap in achieving food security and issues that have disrupted the objective, the President pointed out that the IICCA can play a substantive role in bridging this.