PRESIDENT Donald Ramotar, who has just celebrated his first anniversary as Head of State, has said the as government wants to develop the country faster and further, they work with the philosophy that the most factor for development is the people.

He expressed the sentiments yesterday while addressing the gathering at the seventh Ministry of Housing and Water ‘One Stop Shop’ for 2012 at Providence Stadium, where approximately 800 high income house lots were distributed at Plot ‘B’, Herstelling, East Bank Demerara.
Mr. Ramotar said he strongly believes that, when there is a satisfied population, a society would be able to produce more and hence, if the country is to be moved forward, investment in people must be first and foremost.
He said: “If you look around the world, the countries that are most developed are not the countries where you have the most natural resources. Those things are important and they help but, in the final analysis, the most important factor is our people and there is where we have to invest in order for us to take our country forward.”
The President remarked that the government views social policies as very important, generally, to national development and he can appreciate the importance of people owning their own homes, based on his own experiences.
“I remember the first time, in 1988, when I came back from working abroad, that first Christmas with my family here, half of the house was under water for the whole time,” he recalled.

ENORMOUS FEELING
He acknowledged that having a home of your own provides an enormous feeling of security and contentment and, additionally, it gives people dignity, too, that they are able to live in their own homes.
President Ramotar further pointed out that the entire East Bank corridor has been changing rapidly over the years.
“… it is becoming more and more industrialised and more and more people are coming here to live and, therefore, we have to provide the facilities for them to do so,” he admitted.
He also urged people to take pride in their community and care of the environs in which they live or would be occupying soon, noting that doing so would not only improve the quality of their lives but add value to their properties.
“You need to care it, you need to build early, you need not to speculate with your house lot, this is for you. We give you so that yourself and your children can grow up in a secure environment,” he emphasized.
Mr. Ramotar said the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government has been working tremendously, from 1992 to now, to change the housing situation in Guyana and saw the stock has gone up enormously.
Meanwhile, Minister of Housing and Water, Mr. Irfaan Ali reported that his ministry has, so far, completed approximately 97 percent of its budgetary allocations for the year.
He said the ministry is very confident that, within another seven days, the housing programme would be complete and he hopes that, at some point in time, the Minister of Finance will be taking a supplementary provision to Parliament, so that they can continue to bring home ownership to the people of Guyana.
Ali disclosed that, between 2004 and 2011, in excess of $3.8 billion was invested in the housing sector in Region 4 (Demerara/Mahaica). However, in 2012 alone, there was an investment of some $3.3 billion, representing almost the same amount spent in eight years.
He said, primarily, government’s focus when the housing programme started was on low income lots and then moved to the lower middle income and the middle income side.
However, there was a segment of the market made up of persons with household incomes between $140,000 to sometimes $600,000 and that group of the population was left completely to the private market because they did not qualify for low income house lots.
The minister pointed out that the private market, sometimes, has very high pricing mechanisms and the price of the house lots which were allocated yesterday ranged from $1.2M to $2.5M while the lowest price of a plot of land the same size in the private sector is approximately $8M.

GATED COMMUNITIES
He said, in the development paradigm for the East Bank Demerara, land in the Plot B, Herstelling area is considered high value and that is so because of its proximity to Georgetown, the National Stadium and to what may be termed as gated communities.
Additionally, he related that the scheme is also very accessible and can be reached through the Mocha Road, the route from Providence, Herstelling  and Eccles which was already created by the Housing Ministry.
Ali said government is hoping to take that link all the way to Ogle on East Coast Demerara, which is a three to five years plan.
He advised that they are still subsidising, to a large extent, land which was under sugar cane cultivation.
He told allottees that they should be happy with the future value of their land, especially for those persons who have children.
“Some people are now in their 40s and are accomplishing this dream and some people are in their 20s here and are accomplishing this same dream that you have been fighting for all your life,” Ali remarked.
He said it is important for young people to understand and appreciate the sacrifices that go into owning their own homes and reiterated that, while the target for yesterday’s exercise was to deliver just over 800 house lots, the ministry will be returning next Monday to allocate another 400 and, then in January, another 600, in the various income categories.
The minister said there is now a clause in the agreement of sale which states that any person who gains house lots by providing any misinformation in the application process, once that information is unearthed, the land will be repossessed and any monies paid will be forfeited.
“That is to protect the rights and interest of every person from those unscrupulous persons who try to manipulate the system,” he asserted.
Nevertheless, he declared that the PPP/C Government is very proud to be able to meet the dreams and aspirations of Guyanese.
“It is all yours. We are merely your servants in ensuring that we can bring fulfillment to those dreams. We will continue to serve you to the best of our ability. I want to guarantee you that President Ramotar and his PPP/Civic Government believe strongly in social development, believe strongly in the issues of health, education, housing and water,” Ali assured.
The minister also took the opportunity to congratulate President Ramotar on his first anniversary and pointed out that yesterday was a very fitting day to celebrate one of the President’s grand successes, which is his commitment to social development and to ensuring Guyanese have equal access to housing.