Promising the creation of some 50,000 jobs by 2025 when he campaigned for the Presidency in 2020, President Irfaan Ali yesterday said that he believes the figure will be long surpassed before that time and he said that a comprehensive national development plan is being worked on.
“From a purely developmental perspective, we are well ahead of our jobs programme. More importantly, in terms of our job programme, we’ve been able to return jobs taken away by the Coalition government,” Ali told Stabroek News in an exclusive interview at State House when asked about job creation and the promises he made.
“We have returned jobs in Amerindian communities, we’ve expanded temporary jobs in communities all across the country, you have already had returned, more than 1000 jobs in the sugar industry by the end of this year alone; one call centre would be creating an additional 500 jobs. Their [medium term plan which is long before 2025], is to add 5000 new jobs to that industry. Alone, that is just one call centre. So I think we will surpass that commitment we have made,” he added.
The President said that initiatives being executed are not done merely to reach the target numbers but that they follow through on overall development objectives to empower citizens tied to other sectors.
“In our manifesto, the promise of jobs, housing, infrastructure…they’re all interrelated. And in my view, we are well ahead of not only the creation of jobs and meeting the housing, the housing commitment that we made, but we’re also creating new opportunities in the economy,” he said. Further, he noted, “You’re seeing greater interest in agriculture. More businesses are opening up. Other evidence that employment opportunities will see the 50,000 target met, the President reasoned, was that currently there is a shortage of labour in the private sector and work was being done to fill those gaps.
“There’s now a new problem that we’re faced with, and that is a shortage of labour. So I’ve had many private sector entities coming to me and saying that we really need to address the issue of shortage of labour now,” he explained. A plan to ensure that the private sector gets the required labour force from the local job pool, Ali said, is ensuring that training needs for youth match future demands.
‘Big plan’
And even as those plans are guided by strategies outlined in his party manifesto, he said that work has begun on a comprehensive national development plan document which also provides him a rubric of how it has to be rolled out.
“So let’s start from the big plan. If you read our manifesto, it tells you exactly what we will do over the next five years. That is our social contract with the people, we have a responsibility of implementing that manifesto, as far as possible, because that is what we were elected on. So all the budgets and everything we’re doing is in keeping with what we promised in the manifesto. Outside of that, you would have seen us talking about a national gas strategy which we are now shaping,” he said.
“There is the natural gas strategy; as to how we see the evolution of gas and the development of gas. We have the Wales development that is coming on stream. We have… we have the infrastructure transformation plan that we’re talking about. I spent a long time you know, a few months ago, talking about the health sector reform and what we’re doing in the health sector…the role of Mount Sinai (Health System) and all of this. So in every single sector, we have been outlining a strategy. We have outlined a strategy for food security and food production. We have outlined for every single sector, a strategy and we are pursuing that strategy,” he added. As all of the strategies form subsets of his overall master plan for the county, job creation and empowerment are an integral part of it all.
According to Ali, while some may scoff at the creation of temporary jobs by his government, the initiative should be looked at as an empowerment initiative and not a handout by any means. He said that the people of Guyana can be assured that his government will spend revenue from the oil and gas sector prudently and across the board so that all citizens will see tangible benefits.
‘Not at all handouts’
To criticisms that his government is without a comprehensive plan for the spending of the oil revenues and is instead making ad hoc handouts and payouts, Ali dismissed this, saying that social plans should not be confused with handouts.
“That’s not handouts at all. I am not going to sit here myself…I’m not going to sit here and hear anyone say to me that we have been giving out handouts. It’s an insult for all those persons who find themselves in vulnerable situations. All those communities who require help. All the circumstances we have gone through as a country. Many countries around the world are going through the same thing. You go to look at what we went through… COVID, we went through floods, up to recently,” he contended.
Continuing, Ali said: “Are you saying that supporting those families who lost their entire farm, supporting the fisherfolk, supporting women and children, supporting the children that we promise in the manifesto with ‘Because We Care’ grant, are you considering those things handouts? No. Those are not handouts. In every society, there must be social safety nets and these are programmes that fall within that social safety net category that supports the holistic development of society. I’m not going to sit here or anywhere and hear anyone refer to this as handout.” He said that his social welfare programmes will not be stopped and that critics also have to assess the mechanisms being put in place to create opportunities for the entire nation.
“More than 20,000 scholarships that was never there before. More than 2000 CSOs (Community Service Officers) employed. The fastest expansion of the private sector; more than 6000 people have been trained for the oil and gas sector; more than six thousand people will be trained to work in the hospitality sector. Six new hotels are coming; investment in the sugar industry, expansion of agriculture, increase in aquaculture, increasing our productive capacity… 60% of the dredges that were not operational are back in operation. Tens of thousands of Guyanese are back at work. We’re not seeing that?” he questioned.
“When we invest in the productive capacity of our country, increasing our production, increasing our value added, positioning Guyana to be a leader in the food production market of the region. That is where we are taking Guyana. Building a knowledge economy, building a new city, building an innovation village, building new roads and highways, opening up new lands for agricultural expansion, industrial expansion, and commercial expansion. All over the country you go now, you will see new logistic hubs developing; transportation hubs. The dairy industry is being redeveloped. DDL is now investing in a huge project for the dairy industry. What is all of this? But no, no, people find issues with other aspects. The very small aspects of supporting the social safety net system,” he added.
That government is assisting persons living with disability, giving grants to parents so as to ease the financial burdens and help their children stay in school, helping old age pensioners and other areas that saw financial aid, Ali said will continue.
“Giving hampers to people who are affected by floods, giving hampers during COVID, supporting our health care workers, and giving our joint services a bonus. These are the things that form handouts? Well let me be very clear, we will continue to support these specific groups and ensure that… and it’s in our manifesto. We pledged to do these things in our manifesto. We’re just fulfilling our manifesto,” he stressed.
