YOUNG people and women in the Moruca sub-region of Region One are being targeted for new transport and agriculture enterprises backed by the Guyana Development Bank, President Dr Irfaan Ali has said.
Speaking during a Cabinet outreach in Santa Rosa on Wednesday, the President said the administration was exploring a dedicated cargo launch service from Charity to Moruca and surrounding communities to cut freight costs and ease the price of basic food items in riverain and hinterland areas.
He said the service would be designed as a community-centred business operated by young people, with support from the Guyana Development Bank.
“I was speaking to the Toshao, and we were talking about the possibility of having a goods launch from Charity bringing only food items and goods, one in which, through the Guyana Development Bank, when we start that, we could put together a consortium of young people who can develop this as a business, but a different type of business; a business with a social conscience and a business with social responsibility, so that we can have an arrangement to allow goods to come into the community at a fair transportation cost, one that is beneficial to the community and still beneficial to the business owner,” he explained.
Dr Ali said the initiative is part of a wider push to address transportation and food costs in the sub-region and will be coupled with new opportunities in local food production.
A second flagship project, he added, will focus on poultry, with young people and women expected to play a leading role.
“The second project that we want to work on with a group of young people and women, especially, through the Guyana Development Bank, is a poultry project in this sub-region, where we can have the production of poultry or chicken right here in the sub-region, because that is one of your major costs.”
The President said the Government is ready to partner with communities in Moruca and across Region One to expand agricultural production, including poultry and other crops, and create viable, locally owned enterprises that both generate income and reduce the cost of living.
“We have to be able to create opportunities in the village. We have to be able to increase our production. We have to be able to expand our production, and through the Guyana Development Bank and the agricultural programme, the Government is ready to partner with every single community… to ensure that we can do this together.”
