President Irfaan Ali yesterday announced plans to develop a land surveying institution in Guyana to serve the entire Caribbean as well as countries in Latin America.
“Our vision is to create a land surveying institute in this country that will provide services for the entire Caribbean and Latin America. We must be in a position in three years to have such a skill base that we can be tendering in every other jurisdiction to provide surveying work”, a statement from the Office of the President said.
Ali was speaking as he swore in five new land surveyors at State House. The statement said that 31 candidates sat the exam in December last year but only five were successful.
To facilitate the vision of serving the region, Ali pointed to the need for improvements in the training and skill development of future candidates.
“So before we embark on the examination of students in the future, there are three things I want to suggest that must be put in place from the next programme. We must have the Ministry of Education working with you on the development of three manuals, specifically for the industry; a manual on mathematics, a manual on writing skills, language and a manual on geography for the national landscape”, the President said.
He added that the revenues from oil and gas will help to position Guyana by ensuring that the right technology is acquired and the country’s human resources are trained.
In addressing the new land surveyors: Marc Nicholson, Elijah Persaud, Royston Washington, Tedwin Roach and Terron Roberts, the President underscored the importance of their roles in supporting the country’s infrastructure development.
“Just 25 minutes away from the city you have an opportunity to build a new city that will be above sea level. So all of these new things; the innovation village, the agricultural drive that we’re moving ahead on, all these things require a different scale of operation”, the President said referring to plans for Silica City along the Linden-Soesdyke Highway.
Ali said that the government will be examining the opportunities for land surveyors to advance their education by allocating a number of scholarships to them annually.
After the ceremony, the Food and Agriculture Organisation handed over more than US$30,000 of land surveying equipment to the Government Technical Institute to support its land surveyors’ programme.
