–President Ali emphasises; says will not ‘waste time’ on naysayers’ ‘selfish propaganda’ geared at achieving political advantage

PRESIDENT Dr. Irfaan Ali, in rejecting “selfish propaganda” geared at achieving political advantage, has maintained that the “One Guyana” objective will be achieved through the integration of the country’s people, with equal and equitable opportunities.

During an interview with Trinidad and Tobago’s CNC 3 morning show on Monday, the Guyanese Head of State said the unjustified claims are engineered to portray a narrative that has historically been peddled by the Opposition to create division among citizens.

“I don’t waste my time on propaganda that is aimed at selfishly accomplishing things that give you some political advantage or some political narrative,” he said, adding: “This country is going to move forward as “One Guyana” with all the people integrated as one; we are going to set the agenda as to what unity looks like. We’re going to live in unity; we’re going to ensure that unity is incorporated into economic expansion and policymaking.”

The President highlighted that the government’s push for unity is evidenced by several projects and initiative geared at improving the lives of all Guyanese.
“When we announced a special programme for people with dialysis, it goes to every Guyanese. When we announce a schoolchildren grant, it goes to every Guyanese. When we announce a woman empowerment programme, it goes to every Guyanese. When we announce a programme to give you a voucher for every single woman in Guyana to go and have their medical check-up for Cervical Cancer, it goes to every Guyanese,” Dr. Ali said passionately while defending his leadership.

The utterances geared at creating racial division, President Ali said, is the “architect” of destroying what unity is meant to be.
Despite what is being peddled, the Head of State affirmed that Guyanese could look forward to the nonstop implementation of policies and programmes to enhance their livelihoods and push economic development.
“You will see a continuation of polices that would lead to sustainable development; polices that are aimed and directed towards building the prosperity of every family. You will see Guyana taking a lead role, if not the lead, on the issue of climate security, energy security and food security,” President Ali said.

Already, the government has outlined an ambitious 2030 and beyond agenda for sustainable economic growth.
With special emphasis on improving the lives of every citizen, major investments will continue in the areas of agriculture, health, and education.
“We don’t want wealth to be in economic parameters alone; we want wealth to be enjoyed by citizens of the country through a good standard of living,” Dr Ali said, adding: “You will see a lot of policies and programmes that will continue along this trajectory.”

The government, he said, will make tremendous investments in information and communications technology (ICT), placing technology at the forefront of driving the country’s economy.
For example, the country will see its governance system moving towards greater efficiency through digitisation.
“We are migrating all the manual processes into digital processes, so that you have less human bias in the system itself, and the system must work in an efficient and reliable way,” he said.
Aside from this, there will be additional investments to enhance the country’s human-resource assets.

“We have been investing heavily in research and development, enhancing our human-resource capacity; we want to have one of the highest skilled human resources-based assets in the world,” Dr. Ali emphasised.
The government is also working towards implementing an economic initiative to improve and expand disposable income at the household level.