–Minister Ramson affirms

MINISTER of Culture, Youth and Sport, Charles Ramson, on Tuesday said every Guyanese will witness and benefit from the wealth creation, as the country continues to grow under the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) administration.

The minister made those remarks during his presentation on day two of the 2024 National Budget debate in the House, where he added that for the country’s significant transformation to take place, bigger budgets are required.

“At the heart of larger budgets, it means that governments can do more. You can bring more development, do more for people and it’s hard to argue against larger budgets, only how the money is going to be spent,” he said.

According to Ramson, last year, members of the opposition argued against infrastructural spending and lost that argument in the National Assembly and in the public sphere.
This year, however, he said that they are trying to argue that there should not be this scale of infrastructural development in the country.

“So, if that is the argument, the scale of infrastructure development, now they are going to have to tell us and the public what projects they are against; that is what I want them to tell us… which schools, which hospitals, which roads, which bridges, which highways, which housing developments,” Ramson said.

It was then that he noted that all of the projects being undertaken, when consultations were done, were the requests of the residents of the communities and the people of the country.

As he shifted gears to the allocations for the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, Ramson said that when he went to office, the ministry had just $2.4 billion and right now it is getting some $8.8 billion.

Regarding the rehabilitation and upgrading of community grounds, when an assessment was done, it was discovered that between the period 2011 and 2014, while the People’s Progressive Party/Civic was in office, some $300 million was spent on the ground-enhancement programme.

However, in the subsequent years, up to 2020, the APNU+AFC administration spent only $100 million a year on the ground-enhancement programme, cutting the community enhancement programme by two-thirds. This, he said, was one of the reasons that many community grounds were in such bad condition.

Ramson related that some 150 grounds are currently being done and if those in the hinterland communities are to be included, that will take the number up by another 100, while another 100 are being done by the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs.

“So, currently 350 community grounds across this country are getting support and it will continue. This year, it will be $1 billion we are allocating towards community grounds… because it’s been so important for bringing this country together to develop our talent,” he said.