President projects thousands of jobs from key projects
With no definite numbers yet on how many of the 50,000 jobs the PPP/C has promised to deliver by 2025 have been created to date, President Irfaan Ali on Wednesday reiterated that government anticipates thousands from the rollout of several projects.
Speaking at a news conference at State House, Ali assured that his administration will ensure human resource development and empowerment and against this background he talked up tax reductions and other incentives that he said were implemented to help push entrepreneurship among Guyanese here.
Ali said that so far initiatives under the Central Housing and Planning Authority are expected to see “more than 4,000 new jobs”. The ministry and the Private Sector are in a partnership that is expected to see 1,000 homes being built and the workforce for those must be Guyanese.
Added to those numbers, he said hundreds of jobs will come from the five new hotels that will be built shortly and the new quarries that that will be developed.
“If you look at the housing sector alone…we have more than 4,000 new jobs being created in the housing sector alone. In the partnership with the ministry and the private sector, we have 1,000 homes being constructed… hundreds of jobs, drivers, operators, labourers, mechanics, that is how the economy works. These investments create a string of opportunities for different layers in our society. That is why these expenditures are so critical. Nineteen hundred CSOs [Community Support Officers] that are already in communities, five new hotels, new quarries, each one will employ more than 100.
“How do you track it? How do you check it? During construction we can visit…you can look at a straight line analysis. Look at what is happening on the road. We just have to go in the communities… ,” he added.
He said that he was interested in knowing and tracking numbers and “that system is being put in place.”
“That is why I can tell you about housing and the government expenditure and the jobs linked to that expenditure,” he said.
During the general elections campaign, Ali had campaigned on a promise to create some 50,000 jobs. He later said that it will come from the mining, forestry and other sectors but did not give details, including how his government intended to evaluate and track its progress.
Agriculture was an area underscored by the president as he pointed to empowering this country’s citizenry to maximize on the use of the resources available to them, with the support of government.
“Look at what we are doing in aquaculture— simple, simple, very simple but innovative things. The swamp shrimp. We have set aside resources close to $400 million to develop that industry .... all of these things and investments are linked to job creation,” he said.
He listed coconut farming in Pomeroon and projects for hinterland residents as among the initiatives currently on stream.
The private sector also has to do its part to complement government’s initiatives for holistic development, the president underscored, as he listed a number of initiatives that locals can prepare to tap into.
Pointing to the oil and gas sector, he said opportunities for citizens to provide direct or indirect goods and services will also see the support of government. “As long as we have the capacity locally and we are investing in that capacity, training and certification — and I see that the companies in the private sector are training to meet the standards required — then those jobs must come here to Guyana. There is no negotiation about this and we should not be second-guessing this,” he said.
Ali urged Guyanese to never stop learning and added that they must get to know global demands and skillsets as the people they will be competing with come here already prepared. “We have to understand our competitors are sophisticated and shrewd, they have years of experience and they know the corners,” he said.