— McKoy tells youths to seize opportunities, use innovation to help drive Guyana forward

“YOU have the best partnership for development with the People’s Progressive Party/Civic government as your partner. You couldn’t ask for a better partner for development.”
This was the message from Minister within the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for Public Affairs, Kwame McKoy, on Friday.
At the time, Minister McKoy was delivering the feature address at the closing ceremony for students of the Innovation Camp at the Better Hope Community Centre, East Coast Demerara.
Minister McKoy declared that while the government makes investments and crafts and designs policies and initiatives, the nation’s young people must seize the opportunities being created and play their part.
“We need you to be attentive. We need you to be adaptive. We need you to be understanding. We need you to observe. We need you to utilise. We need you to take advantage of the things that we are preparing and designing for you and your future,” he said.
The minister said Guyana needs a generation that is innovative, ethical, patriotic, united and prepared to lead.
He expressed pride in the work being done and in the young people who are not only eager to succeed, but are yearning and aiming for the skies and beyond.
“We want to expand and optimise opportunities for making money as a country and as a people, and so we will export—feed ourselves and export as well—and create efficiency around the delivery of services and goods to people through creativity, knowledge and talent,” he said.
He told the youths that through their innovations, Guyana can leap forward by creating new business opportunities for themselves, their families and communities and, by extension, the country.
Continuing, the minister stated that innovation will also create employment opportunities and strengthen Guyana’s competitiveness globally.
“The more we apply the innovations, utilise our creativity, talent and knowledge, we will get better and better and better, and we will be able to compete at higher and higher levels across the world. We will be second to none because we will ensure, by all our energies, we gain the biggest advantage in terms of our competitiveness,” he remarked.
Noting that Guyana has abundant resources and many opportunities, Minister McKoy told participants that the government is deliberately and intentionally investing in them and their future.
“We want you to be better even than us, any of us, just like your parents cried for and [are] unselfish about, because we want you to be the stars of the future, because all that you do will help us to help society respond to challenges, prepare for challenges,” he said.
“It could be the challenges that we face with climate change, the challenges in food security, public health, emergencies and all the different things that are important.”
While encouraging the young people not to take the opportunities available to them for granted, Minister McKoy urged them to remain focused in all that they pursue.