Eleven Guyana Defence Force (GDF) scholarship awardees are due to travel soon to the People’s Republic of China to begin their studies.
The Ministry of the Presidency on Wednesday said the 11 Second Lieutenants will be pursuing studies in the fields of Industrial, Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, Computer Science and Technology, Industrial, Electronic Information Engineering, Mechatronic Engineering, Bio-engineering, Aeronautical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Chemical Engineering and Technology on five-year scholarships.
President David Granger met with the awardees on Wednesday afternoon at the Ministry of the Presidency and he highlighted that the army’s technical corps – the Air Corps, Engineer Corps, Intelligence Corps, and Signal Corps as well as the Coast Guard – are being improved and retooled, as part of its ongoing restructuring and reorganisation.
“Improvements in the technical corps are necessary to develop a more modern and technologically-savvy Defence Force; to improve the Force’s operational and organisational capacity; to support the work of the non-technical arms of the Force; and to repel threats, including non-traditional threats along our borders,” he was quoted as saying by the Ministry of the Presidency.
President Granger also noted that Guyana’s doctrine of total national defence places emphasis, among other things, on ensuring a body of scientifically-trained personnel to populate the technical arms of the Force. He also said the army “must be ready to react effectively to traditional threats – incursions and to other forms of interventions. It must be prepared also, to strengthen its capacity to respond to new and emerging threats, such as biological and chemical warfare, cyber threats, electronic warfare, and environmental hazards.”
Additionally, the ministry said the president also underscored that the doctrine of total national defence emphasises Defence Cooperation. Cooperation with friendly governments and their armed forces, he said, have allowed our Defence Force to improve its capabilities through training, joint exercises, the exchange of information, intelligence-sharing and procurement of non-lethal equipment.
“Defence Cooperation is being pursued with several countries – under regional, multilateral and bilateral arrangements. The People’s Republic of China and the People’s Liberation Army, in particular, have been very supportive of our efforts at recapitalising the Guyana Defence Force. They have provided non-lethal equipment and transport vehicles to our Defence Force. They have continued their long-standing policy of offering training to officers through the extension of scholarships to Chinese academic and military institutions,” he said.
He thanked the Government of the People’s Republic of China for its cooperation and assistance over the years and specifically for the 11 full scholarships.
President Granger told the scholarship awardees that their selection is testimony to the confidence which the Defence Force reposes in them. “I urge you to make the best use of the training and education which you will receive. I wish you every success in your studies and to your contributions to the establishment of a more modern Defence Force,” he said.
According to the ministry, Chief-of-Staff of the GDF Brigadier Patrick West noted that the 11 scholarships represent a historic milestone in the Defence Force as he explained that the Force had only one prior instance where officers were granted extensive scholarships. Those awardees were members of Standard Officers Course (SOC) 16, who departed for Romania and Russia immediately after commissioning in 1985.West reminded that it was President Granger who charged the Force to explore opportunities for training and education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in order to develop the technical competence of its members and also to establish the Technical Corps. “Some of these areas, despite being new to the GDF, are currently employed in the world at large. I am therefore certain that the education and exposure granted will see us beginning to achieve the aim of building the capacity of the Technical Corps,” he was quoted as saying.
“I can say unequivocally that I expect that these awardees will be good ambassadors of the Force. We will hold them to the highest standards and expect great returns for the sacrifices the Force will be making in investing in their education in this way. I wish to express thanks to the members of the Force’s Academic Board for the selection of this group who in their opinion were likely to earn selection at the universities of their choice,” he further said while congratulating the awardees.
The scholarship awardees are Kevon Blount, Romain Wilson, Shaka Williams, Floyd Phillips, Jamaal Leitch, Sevon Ferreira, Shane Blair, Neon Fiedtkou, Shivanand Persaud, Seabra Manbode and Jehu West.
Both President Granger and Brigadier West thanked China’s Ambassador to Guyana Cui Jianchun for the support provided to the Force.
