President Irfaan Ali has said a planned 5,000 turn-key homes project will create at least 25,000 jobs within just one year as part of the 50,000 new jobs he promised to create within his five-year term.
“This is no promise, this is a commitment,” said Ali, who also announced plans for four new branded international hotels to be established here.
He made the disclosures during an interview via Zoom with Stabroek News last Tuesday, when asked to say with specificity where the jobs he promised during his elections campaign would come from.
He said that since taking office on August 2nd, the issue of the high unemployment rate of Guyana, which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has been of utmost priority for the PPP/C and he wants the respective skill sets of Guyana’s citizenry maximised and their earning potential realised.
But to tackle the unemployment scourge requires a holistic development plan that is tied into all sectors, the president explained, while asserting that his government’s first budget has started the process to increase employment rates.
“We have started with an emergency budget to fulfill that commitment. I saw the opposition issue a statement that the measures we have placed is catered for the private sector. But no, it is part of a plan. We have a situation where the opposition says it’s a pro-private sector budget because of the incentives it gives the private sector to go back into production capacity. That is linked to job creation and employment creation. Just let’s look at the poultry sector, for example…we will put that back in operation. The mining sector has seen [an] increase of 65% of the operations… forestry, I can tell you that since the emergency budget came out alone, would have employed back 100 persons. So the small forestry operators and the community of forest operators are getting back into production. Once the productive sector gets back in operation, the jobs are going to be created,” he said.
“Then we have the hinterland Community Support Officers [CSO] programme. The CSO programme is going to recommence and is going to recreate more than 1,000 jobs in the hinterland communities. In addition to all of this, we have the construction sector that will take off. Take, for example, if we build 5,000 houses in a year, you have a minimum of five persons on a house. That is 25,000 jobs in a year, just on one programme, just on one programme—5,000 homes,” the president, who once served as Minister of Housing for three years, added.
Launched in 2014, under the overarching Youth Entrepreneurship and Apprenticeship Programme (YEAP), the CSO targeted persons aged 16 to40 living in regions One, Seven, Eight and Nine.
But it was replaced by the APNU+AFC government which launched its own Hinterland Employment and Youth Service programme. The APNU has criticized CSO, saying it did not empower the persons under it to develop or master any skillset but instead gave them a monthly stipend.
Ali said that continuity is the objective and as investment opportunities come, employment numbers will climb. The private sector, he said, will have to assist government in creating those opportunities but government has initiatives of its own to complement them.
“On the government’s side, you have one programme alone, the housing programme, that can create a number of jobs. Then you have the transformative infrastructure; you have the new Demerara Harbour Bridge, the new four lane highway for the West Bank, another East Bank corridor… etcetera,” he pointed out.
“I spoke also of the business incubation centre at Wales. I spoke also of having the energy mix that will see an at least 50% cut in our energy cost. That will stimulate manufacturing and industrial development and would create another wave of jobs in those sectors. With sugar coming back on stream you have that to add, too, then increased rice production. So, overall, agriculture will contribute to its input. Growth, job creation, income generation… all of those things are linked to economic expansion and are linked to sustainable livelihoods,” he added.
New hotels
The president then announced that plans are on stream for four new hotel franchises to be established here. Shortly after taking office, according to Ali, a number of business proposals were sent to his government, including expressions to build hotels. It is against this background that he said expressions of interest will be publicly advertised so that all interested hoteliers and investors are given a chance to highlight projects intended. “All of those projects will generate hundreds of jobs. In the construction phase and then in the permanent phase, when it comes into operation. We, at least, would like to see four new branded hotels here in Guyana. We have already gone out to a public expression of interest. That is out about a week now,” he said.
“What I can say is we went out to that expression of interest because of the level of activism in the first five weeks I came to office. We have been receiving many requests for persons who want to invest in hotels, branded hotels. So we thought it best if we have all these requests to go out to a public process where everyone who is interested gets an opportunity to put in their proposals. Yes, they will be branded hotels of international standards,” he added.
‘City of Ogle’ project inconsistencies
Under Ali’s predecessor, David Granger, a plan for two hotels and an 800-acre ‘City of Ogle’ had been announced less than two weeks before the March 2nd elections. Ali said that project has to undergo a review. He explained that some of the payments for the former GuySuCo-owned lands from those investors were never received although they were given ownership.
In late February, the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) announced that it had entered an agreement that would see this country having an AC Marriott Hotel, two other internationally-branded hotels, a specialty hospital in the form of a cardiology services centre and a housing development similar to the East Bank of Demerara Windsor Estates on GuySuCo’s lands stretching from Ogle to Lusignan.
NICIL’s officials had dismissed assertions that news of mega projects just 10 days before elections were politically motivated, while saying the agency was planning for the long term and for the benefit of Guyana’s people.
“…We have actually tagged an area from Ogle to Lusignan for developmental drives. So it is over 800 acres…,” NICIL’s lead specialist Rachel Henry had said then.
Then in opposition, the PPP/C had questioned the timing of the transactions, chalking it all up politicking and had said that all transactions would be reviewed should the party get into office.
Ali said that a review was done and inconsistencies found. He explained, “As you are aware, we found some alarming inconsistencies in the allocation of land, where, in some instances, vesting orders were given for ownership without any monies being paid, amounting to billions of dollars. What I can say is that NICIL and the Attorney General’s office, they are in a process now at looking at these issues to see, first of all, the ways in which we can ensure those lands are brought back into the national pool and, secondly, to examine the interest that [was] there,” he said.
“If there was a genuine interest there, then they would be given an opportunity to present themselves. In a few instances, maybe two or three, I was advised that persons would have paid off in full for their land but in many instances, no payments were made. We can’t single out any piece or plot, we have to look at that area in its entirety before we make decisions on the way forward,” he added.
