President Irfaan Ali yesterday announced the construction of 500 homes in Bartica as part of the government’s housing programme.
Ali made the announcement during his first visit to the Cuyuni-Mazaruni township since taking office, a release from the Office of the President said.
The President said that he has spoken to a number of teachers and nurses in the town who related their interest in becoming part of the government housing programme.
“We have just gotten 120 acres of land and we are going to work with the people in Bartica, the skilled men and women in Bartica, the small contractors in Region Seven [for the construction of the homes]. Very soon, before the end of August, the Minister [of Housing] is going to come to meet with you because we want to use that 120 acres of land to build at least 500 homes here using the labour of contractors here”, he said.
The President also spoke about the important spin-offs of the project explaining that the benefits would not be isolated.
“You know what that would do? That would not only deliver housing; that would create tremendous opportunities in the value chain for hardware resources, skilled labour, and transportation services, all of this would be created with this one project. In addition to this, we are working on an infrastructure transformation plan that will see all the communities on the outskirts of Bartica linked with good infrastructure to the centre of Bartica,” Ali said.
He committed to developing the infrastructure of the Region so that it can be transformed into a service hub that could cater for the logistics needs of the mining sector in Guyana. He said that his Government would aid in putting structures in place and in creating a solid platform for the growth and development of the residents.
“In order for you to become a major logistics hub for the mining sector, you must be able to produce food and you must be able to provide services. Whether it’s banking services, machining services, or mechanical services,” Ali said while noting that Bartica already has a lot of investments in place catering to the service industry, but they need to be more structured.
Additionally, Ali told Barticians that systems are also in place to train teachers in the region and health sector workers since they are essential for overall development. He said that the children in the region must have access to good quality education and healthcare.
Teachers will be further trained, while the President reiterated the idea of teaching coding to primary school students and software development to secondary school students.
“Our task as a country and as a Government is to put more disposable income in the pockets of people. Once we put more disposable income in your pockets, you will have more resources to live a higher standard life and this is what adds to building prosperity,” he said.
The President, in pushing his food security plan, said that there is a need to enhance the agriculture capacity of the region. He said that he has instructed the Ministry of Agriculture to visit the town next week to do an assessment on expanding the school shade house programme.
“Imagine we have a school feeding programme in all our schools. Imagine if every school now, we can have single parents who have children in those schools doing one or two shade houses in every school and supplying the school kitchen with the food from those shade houses. That is how you build economic opportunity. That is what you call the trickle-down effect of investment from the Government,” Ali said.
He also used the opportunity to push his “One Guyana” initiative.
