-mulls plans for state-of-the-art museum, art gallery
IN pursuit of a comprehensive promotion of Guyana’s culture and realisation of its full potential, President Dr. Irfaan Ali has declared the government’s plan to allocate resources towards the establishment of a museum and art gallery.
This revelation was made by the Head of State during a stakeholder meeting over the weekend, with an emphasis on the allocation of significant investments to STEM (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) initiatives.
“What we have to do is invest heavily in STEM in the school system, invest heavily in STEM in the communities, building out our infrastructure to promote STEM subjects and STEM output,” the president said.
While Guyana, he acknowledged, is behind in its advancement of technology compared to some parts of the world, investments are being made to ensure the country is ahead of the curve in science and technology.
“We are investing now in the best technology, digitisation, AI [artificial intelligence] robotics; all of these things are going to be an important part of the economic institutional governance [and] transformation of this country.”
“STEM is a very important part of the policy, so you will see us investing at the community level, investing in schools, investing in the infrastructure today that is the best world class and then bringing the population up to meet that,” President Ali added.
Last year, Guyana’s first all-female national robotics team competed at the prestigious 2023 First Global Robotics Challenge (FGC) in Singapore.
Meanwhile, back in 2022, the country won 16 medals at the International Youth Robotics Competition (IYRC), held virtually in South Korea.
CULTURE and ART
Shifting his attention to culture and art, the President noted that there is vast potential to promote art not only as a societal and personal asset but also as an economic tool.
“When we understand the value creation of culture and art, it becomes a more potent tool in advancing society and investing in it.”
He added: “Culture and art are important parts of our society; we can’t build a tourism sector without culture and art; we cannot build the history of our country; continue to tell the history of our country without culture and art. We have not been able to harness the full potential of culture and art and bring our people together and our country together in promoting our country.”
In 2023, the National Assembly approved an allocation of some $4.3 billion to the Ministry of Culture, Youth, and Sports.
From the allotment, some $200 million will be allocated to the upcoming Mashramani float parade and a series of sub-events, including flag raising ceremony, Calypso, Chutney, and Soca monarch competitions, a steel band panorama, and a folk evening.
The Literary Arts Festival, which aims to bring all the works associated with the Guyana Prize for Literature to life through several sub-events, such as poetry slam, storytelling, symposiums, and others, was also catered for.
Meanwhile, massive investments were also made in sports, and in 2024, more can be expected, President Ali said.
“We are building from a sport perspective; we are investing in all the sports facilities around the country. We are seeing the results of this once again. We are winning medals again at PanAm [Pan American Games]; we are winning medals all over the place.”
